By editorial@silicon.com, 14 December 2000 19:34
COMMENT After several key concessions were made, the board of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted five to nil in favour of the $109bn fusion of media and technology. Those concessions primarily focus on steering the future of US broadband access away from proprietary control. AOL Time Warner will be forced to allow one rival broadband ISP access to its cable network before it launches its own service, then at least two competing services must appear within 90 days. The company will also have to prove it is offering DSL services fairly to consumers, by not neglecting geographical areas where it can push people towards its broadband cable offerings. Thirdly, it will not be allowed to prioritise its content over that of its competitors while it is being transmitted over its own networks. Those concessions, and the subsequent unanimous approval of the FTC mean AOL Time Warner only requires one more green light before it hits the open road. That decision lies with the Federal Communications Commission, which most industry watchers believe will fast-track the deal to completion. So this coming together of content and its delivery is effectively a reality. Should we be worried about this multimedia juggernaut? The answer is a reserved no. No, because the deal clears the way for next generation bandwidth-hungry interactive services to be developed more quickly than mere strategic alliances could have allowed. With reservations, because the company cannot be relied upon not to abuse its commercial power to keep control of technological development. The US and European authorities must adopt ongoing policing if we are not to find ourselves with another painful anti-trust case in two years' time. If they do that successfully, the technology that underpins next generation online consumer services might just benefit us all.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below