In a blow to the cable industry, a federal appeals court declined to review a ruling that found the FCC had improperly lumped cable-modem service into a category not bound to the same regulations as local phone companies.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association said it would urge the FCC to seek a review before the Supreme Court.
Under current FCC rules, cable operators are not required to lease their broadband networks to unaffiliated Internet service providers such as America Online and Earthlink Inc.
In October, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled the FCC had improperly classified cable-modem transmission as an information service rather than a telecommunications service. Cable-modem service is subject to fewer rules than DSL, the broadband technology used by the biggest local phone companies.
