INTERNET PROVIDERS WANT OPEN SYSTEM.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Staff Writer

A coalition of Internet service providers Monday called for Los Angeles to regulate cable online access, saying a ``hands-off'' policy advocated in a city report would allow large companies like AT&T to monopolize the market.

``Now is the time for cities and local governments to say they have to build their system to let people in,'' said Greg Simon, co-director of OpenNET, an alliance of 70 Internet companies.

The city's decision on the issue will play a pivotal role in the future of high-speed Internet access, a field being defined by local governments in the absence of action by federal regulators.

Advocates of open access say the decision will prove crucial to their own business prospects and to consumers.

``We're facing what every city with cable franchises will face: Are we going to allow consumers to have a choice or force them to use a monopoly?'' Simon said.

AT&T has applied for a cable franchise transfer that would permit it to operate cable systems in the Van Nuys area, in hopes of offering not only television transmission, but also high-speed Internet access through its own Internet service, Home.

Three city Information Technology Commission members resigned last week - Alan Arkatov, Joyce Emerson and Bob Duggan - because they wanted to require AT&T to let other Internet service providers hook up directly to its cable modem.

But Mayor Richard Riordan opposed that plan, arguing that it would dampen investment in high-speed cable lines.

A staff report by the Information Technology Agency concluded that it would be technically possible to allow multiple Internet service providers to share cable lines, but recommended that the city take a wait-and-see approach before regulating the market.

The commission was set to decide the issue Monday, but the resignations of the three commissioners left it without a quorum, forcing cancellation of the meeting. As a result, the City Council's Information Technology and General Services Committee will receive the report and judge whether to impose an open access policy.

``We see Los Angeles as a major metropolitan area, and its decisions and actions will influence the rest of the country,'' said Marc Jacobson, senior vice president of development for Prodigy Internet. ``We feel that continuing this battle is essential to securing competitive access. The notion that having multiple Internet service providers on cable lines is bad for investment is nonsense.''

Instead, multiple providers would offer a more diverse range of services and technical capabilities for phone and video communication than a single company, said Bob Atkins, president of DigiLink Internet Services of Marina Del Rey.

``We believe that the failure to create an open system which allows individual consumers to speak and be heard, will undermine the very character of the Internet,'' he said.