You’ll recall that Earthlink’s fortunes collapsed after their wireless MVNO (Helio) flamed out spectacularly, and ISPs were no longer required to provide third party access to next-generation networks. Earthlink tried a lot of ways to get around the incumbent ISP gridlock — from municipal wireless to broadband over powerline — though none of them materialized. Earthlink does have limited, expensive access to Comcast’s network in some markets, and has access to Time Warner Cable’s networks as a condition of the AOL/Time Warner merger.
This required access being Earthlink’s only real path in the broadband space, it’s not surprising to see the ISP continue to push for wholesale access to Comcast’s network as a merger condition. The company went so far this week as to offer a report (pdf) from Professor Simon J. Wilkie, Former Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission, highlighting how the creation of NBC Universal will result in higher prices for standalone broadband services. The report concludes that such hikes could be mitigated by (duh) competition:”…sufficient competitive choices, such as independent ISP like EarthLink could provide, would mitigate the harm to consumers who wished to remain with a stand-alone broadband provider at the old prices. This is because the availability of sufficient neutral provider choices would serve to discipline Comcast s ability to raise prices.”Unfortunately for Earthlink, unless the FCC has a real surprise planned, such a condition isn’t happening. Comcast’s spending millions on an absolutely massive army of lobbyists aimed at not only getting the deal approved, but getting it approved with thin conditions. The FCC’s already shown they have no absolutely no desire to upset the nation’s wealthiest and largest carriers by addressing competition or open access policies.
Unless Earthlink can make use of delivery alternatives like White Space broadband, or has a few billion hidden away for a fiber to the home deployment, their future is not particularly bright.
Update: Comcast sent us this statement in response to the study:”Earthlink’s economics are simply off base. Opponents of the Comcast NBCU transaction like Earthlink are rereleasing and rehashing the same discredited arguments they made months and months ago. We have fully addressed these arguments in the FCC record and shown conclusively their analysis is flawed and incorrect.”
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