Company Seeks Access To Tci’S Cable Network Internet Service Provider Wants To Have High-Speed Connections Using Cable Company’S Lines

Internet On-Ramp, a local provider of Internet services, has asked TeleCommunications Inc. in Spokane for permission to use its cable network.

On-Ramp’s request, made earlier this week, will likely be challenged by TCI. The request reveals one direction in which Internet service providers hope to move in the new age of fast, cable-based links to the Internet.

On-Ramp President Bob Bowman said the company wants to offer its Perkinet product to more area customers by leasing cable lines from TCI. Perkinet, he said, is a cable-Internet hookup similar to TCI’s At Home service.

Compared with standard dial-up connections to the Internet, cable links are hundreds of times faster and are considered a future product of choice, especially in high-end markets.

Locally, On-Ramp provides its Perkinet service to dormitory rooms at Eastern Washington University through a partnership with Davis Communications, a Cheney cable company.

On-Ramp is a subsidiary of Internet Ventures Inc., based in Redondo Beach, Calif.

Ken Watts, TCI’s general manager in Spokane, did not comment about On-Ramp’s request to hook into TCI’s cable network. “TCI is going to comply with the law,” he said.

But the legalities of outside companies tapping into private-cable networks are mostly uncharted terrain.

The issue has gained importance since the AT&T-TCI merger plans were announced.

Ultimately, the Federal Communications Commission will help determine how the two companies may come together. A decision is expected in early spring.

But Gary Gardner, executive director of the Seattle-based Washington Association of Internet Service Providers, says local governments also play a key role, since they grant the local licenses that allow cable companies to operate.

In a high-profile case in Oregon, the Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Council voted late last year to require TCI to open its cable lines to Internet providers if it wants to transfer its franchise license to AT&T.

TCI and AT&T have said they likely will fight that requirement in court unless the city and county change their position.

David Olson, cable director for the city of Portland, said AT&T and TCI were told that the franchise transfer had been denied on Wednesday, because they do not want to open TCI’s network to competitors.

“Portland and Multnomah County care very, very deeply about this open access provision,” Olson said.

King County in Western Washington has indicated that it, too, will ask TCI to open its network to Internet service providers.

The Spokane City Council will face the same issue next week. But Spokane may not take the same path as Portland.

Bob Beaumier, an assistant city attorney, said Spokane’s position for now is “wait and see.”

A proposal the City Council will review Jan. 11 doesn’t require TCI to open its cable lines to Internet service providers to transfer its franchise to AT&T. The franchise transfer deadline is Jan. 16, Beaumier said.

Beaumier said the issue of forcing cable companies to open their networks to Internet providers should be left to federal agencies.

Ralph Sims, vice president of research and development for Northwest Nexus, a Bellevue-based Internet provider that also does business in Spokane, said if no steps are taken to open cable lines, Internet providers will be cut out of one of the high-end markets.

Gardner says consumers will be hurt by having fewer choices.