Through its subsidiaries the Company engages in value-added services for cable providers, cable broadband, and publishing businesses in China.

Unlimited cable broadband internet access is also available in the service area.

In its decision, the Ninth Circuit wrote that the "principle of common carriage governs cable broadband as it does other means of Internet transmission such as telephone."

Comcast restricts bandwidth because, with cable broadband, heavy users can slow service for other nearby customers.

In March of last year, the Federal Communications Commission ruled cable broadband was an "information service."

The Bells may also expand their promotional deals for D.S.L. broadband connections, which are in many cases half the price of cable broadband.

(Many of the cheaper D.S.L. connections are slower than cable broadband.)

The new networks' average download speeds are comparable to the DSL and low-end cable broadband plans available to many customers here in the US.

But that is not the reason for the disparity in cable broadband and D.S.L. subscriptions.

The F.C.C. order, which was partly struck down, had classified cable broadband as an "information service" under the 1996 Telecommunications Act.