Ameritech Michigan

Ameritech's comments focused on the regulatory disparity between the telephone company and cable company in providing broadband Internet access.

Ameritech argued that the incumbent telephone company has been burdened with highly restrictive regulation that is not felt by the dominant cable incumbents. This regulatory disparity is unjustifiable because the regulatory restrictions placed on the telephone company are grounded in the assumption that telephone companies control a bottleneck in the market for broadband access. However, if there is any bottleneck control to be considered in the broadband market, it should belong to the cable operators who control almost three-fourths of the market.

Ameritech's argument is based on the service definition under Title I, II, VI of Michigan Telecommunication Act. According to the MTA, Internet access - regardless of the transmission medium - is an "information service" subject to regulation under Title I. If the service provider provides "telecommunication service" under Title II in addition to "information service", it would be subject to regulation as a common carrier. But the Commission requires this two-tiered approach where a provider has market power - and that is the only circumstance in which the Commission can justify the imposition of legal obligations to serve differently.

Ameritech argued that if cable operators are assumed to have no market power over broadband access, the ILEC should also be treated equally and not be to subject to providing a transmission path on a common carrier basis. If xDSL is classified as a "telecommunication service" subject to Title II, then so too is the cable modem. Under Title VI, the statue restricts the term "cable service" to information that a cable provider makes available to all subscribers generally. A substantial portion of Internet content such as email and chat rooms is decidedly not available to all subscribers generally, therefore the cable broadband Internet service should not be classified as a "cable service".

Ameritech has suggested that the commission establish a coherent regulatory policy that equalizes treatment for the full range of broadband service providers in order to preserve the competitive structure of the market.

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