Time Warner Cable said Monday that it will offer EarthLink Network Inc.'s
high-speed-data service commercially this September to customers in Columbus,
Ohio, and Syracuse, N.Y., the MSO's latest multiple-Internet-service-provider
market.
The MSO also said it would offer EarthLink in a 'substantial number' of
systems before the end of the year. Time Warner Cable spokesman Mike Luftman
declined to elaborate on the MSO's multiple-ISP rollout plan, noting that more
information will be revealed later this year.
In the meantime, Time Warner Cable will prepare its technical and
customer-service-representative staff to handle the new service on a commercial
scale, Luftman said. 'They've been dealing with the ISP world for some time in
terms of Road Runner [the MSO's in-house cable-modem ISP], so it's not as if
this is some kind of quantum leap,' he added.
The MSO recently completed a technical open-access trial in Columbus with 100
Time Warner Cable and CompuServe Interactive Services Inc. employees.
Time Warner Cable is awaiting action from the Federal Trade Commission tied
to the MSO's open-access deals with High Speed Access Corp. and Juno Online
Services Inc.
As part of its approval of the merger that created media giant AOL Time
Warner Inc., the FTC ordered that the company must give access to at least two
nonaffiliated ISPs in its high-speed cable markets. After launching a broadband
version of AOL, Time Warner Cable has 90 days to secure FTC approval for those
deals.
Luftman said the comment period for that filing runs through July 31.
EarthLink struck a deal to gain access to Time Warner Cable's high-speed
lines last November. EarthLink also has similar deals with three other MSOs that
have launched or are planning to offer multiple ISPs: AT&T Broadband, Cox
Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp.
