As architects of the digital economy, the members of the Digital Coast Roundtable have a strong interest in universal access to broadband services for all the people of Los Angeles and a comprehensive understanding of the relevant technologies. The DCR is convinced that the overall growth of the digital economy and the introduction of new enabling technologies will be accelerated if the forces of competition, rather than the force of government, drive the results. For these reasons, the Roundtable opposes efforts to require that cable operators, or any other provider of broadband services, carry the content of other Internet access providers and instead supports the growth of a competitive market that encourages alternative access methods such as DSL and wireless broadband.

Here in Los Angeles, we have already seen how competition, not government intervention, is driving improvements in available Internet access services. On the day that Media One announced that it was going to offer broadband services to its cable subscribers, GTE announced its higher-speed DSL Internet service. Today, a number of companies are pushing as fast as they can to develop competitive wireless Internet access services. Any effort by government to burden these communications services with forced access requirements will slow the flow of capital that is helping to create universal access to broadband services here in Los Angeles and slow the overall pace of development of competing communication technologies.

As Councilmember Ridley-Thomas noted in his August 6 article in The Los Angeles Times, the forced access debate is "[t]he hottest and weightiest public policy issue in the city today . . ." To a large extent, however, the heated debate in City Hall is being fueled by special interests with the most money at stake. The Goliaths in the dispute over forced access include AT&T and other holders of cable properties who want to protect the value of their investment and AOL, the phone companies and others who fear the emergence of new technologies that will potentially undermine their competitive position.

In important ways, what has been missing from the debate is the voice of people with a comprehensive understanding of the issues involved and no significant stake in which type of broadband technology ultimately enjoys the broadest use. This is the Digital Coast Roundtable’s voice. The Roundtable includes many of the Los Angeles area’s most dynamic companies who have developed their business models around the Internet and understand clearly that rapid and universal access to broadband services will accelerate growth in today’s increasingly digital economy and, in important ways, fundamentally change the way we communicate and live.

In the Roundtable’s view, it would be problematic if even the most enlightened, informed and technologically capable governmental body took responsibility for shaping developments in broadband communications. In addition, as the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency concluded after its own comprehensive analysis of this issue, there is no compelling reason today for the big, and often clumsy, hand of government to step in.

In the forced access debate, big money and special interests have spoken very loudly. What’s been largely missing is the perspective of a technologically savvy advocate for the common interests at stake. As that advocate, the Digital Coast Roundtable believes that the growth in today’s e-commerce economy, the realization of universal access to broadband services and the rapid introduction of new competing communication technologies are best advanced by dynamic competition, not government regulation. In our considered view, forced access is not in the best interests of the people of Los Angeles or in our collective future. We respectfully urge the City Council to say no to forced access.

The position of the Digital Coast Roundtable summarized above was unanimously adopted by the members of the Roundtable who attended the Roundtable’s August 10 meeting (approximately 50% of the membership), with one abstention, Steven Benson from Paramount Digital Entertainment, and one recusal, Rocky Delgadillo, Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles. Two other members, Disney Channel and SBC Interactive, have subsequently informed the Roundtable that they support an open access requirement.

Report By: Gary Mendoza
Chair, Government Relations
Digital Coast Roundtable
September 10, 1999