For big utilities like Cinergy, the additional revenue from selling broadband is just one benefit.

They had no broadband licence and no viable business plan without selling broadband, and due to lack of funding withdrew its application in Oct 2002.

The other businesses, including retail telephone services; Btopenworld, an Internet subsidiary; and Ignite, which sells broadband to corporations, would be linked to the wholesale arm by a holding company, the executives said.

The company's other operations, consisting of BT Wireless; Yell, its electronic directory; and Ignite, which sells broadband to business customers, will be linked to NetCo through a holding company.

ITS did not have a broadband licence and no viable business plan without selling broadband, and due to lack of funding withdrew its application in Oct 2002.

The commissioners could suggest that the merged company sell broadband to customers as an individual product, not bundled with phone service, a commitment Verizon accepted when it bought MCI this year.

Mr. Pittman argues that if anyone can sell broadband, it is America Online, because the most likely prospective buyers are its 17 million members.

The company wouldn't sell broadband on a retail basis, but would market it wholesale to all buyers.

Atlantic Broadband, a small cable company with operations along the East Coast, has started selling broadband in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, where Kelly Rusinack, a HughesNet subscriber, lives.

And it isn't just industry people who are jittery about LightSquared's bid to sell wholesale broadband via licenses that stream close to the Global Positioning System (GPS) bands.