An appeal court in Washington D.C. has ruled that AT&T Corporation, which is the largest cable network operator in the US, shall not be forced to give competing ISPs access to its cable lines. The court held that it was not empowered to place conditions on a franchising deal involving MediaOne and AT&T Corp. because such action would breach federal communication laws.

In an earlier court ruling, AT&T Corp. had been ordered to open up its cable network to rival ISPs, but the appeal court has now overturned this decision. The court this week concluded that issues relating to telecommunications ought to be determined by federal regulators and so it was not within its capacity to uphold such an order.

Other US cable network providers AOL Time Warner and Comcast have similarly been challenged for failing to grant open access to their systems. However, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) did place limited open access requirements on AOL Time Warner as part of its merger deal last year.

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