City Passes On Question About Cable Web Access

The city of Spokane is leaving it up to federal regulators to determine whether “leased access” requirements for cable companies apply to both television programmers and Internet service providers.

Spokane-based Internet On Ramp last month filed a complaint with the city in hopes of forcing TCI in Spokane - now owned by AT&T - to open its high-speed cable network to all local ISPs.

On Ramp claims Internet video transmissions are now so advanced over cable that they are essentially the same as programming offered by conventional broadcasters.

Federal rules require cable companies to lease some space to outside broadcasters.

But in a May 12 letter to On Ramp, City Manager Bill Pupo wrote, “I believe that the question of Internet service provider access to a cable operator’s system under the circumstances presented would involve supporting the economic interests of either the ISP industry or the cable industry.

“This is not an appropriate function of my office,” he wrote, adding the Federal Communications Commission should decide.

At a Monday briefing session, Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers briefly raised the leased access issue, but other council members seemed satisfied with Pupo’s response.

On Ramp President Bob Bowman said a review request will be filed with the FCC this month, asking whether leased access rules apply to ISPs.