August 14, 2008

Still Trying: Overbuilders, Consumers Union Lend Support to Wholesale Unbundling

With time running out for the FCC to act this year on wholesale unbundling, supporters continue to try to build momentum for the issue. The Broadband Service Providers Association —which counts overbuilders RCN, Knology and SureWest among members—says it "will now support" ACA's proposal for wholesale unbundling. BSPA is urging the FCC to vote on the issue in Sept or Oct. While the grapevine has been buzzing for weeks with word that FCC chmn Kevin Martin is contemplating a wholesale a la carte proposal, the chmn has said several times in recent weeks that there is nothing currently in the works. If Martin leaves office in Jan when Pres Bush does, as some predict, time is running out for him to enact any a la carte regulations. Not surprisingly, the Consumers Union is also on the wholesale a la carte bandwagon, saying it is "ripe" for action. "When the largest video programmers use their market power to charge ever increasing rates and thwart choice at the wholesale level, it is consumers who pay the price," the Consumers Union said in an FCC filing Tues. ACA has pushed for a rule that would force cable programmers to charge the same wholesale per channel rate to every operator, preventing them from giving volume discounts to bigger operators, which would prevent programmers from tying channels.