While L.A. is home to some major players in the broadband revolution, many of those having the biggest impact on local high-speed Internet access and content are from outside the area.

Their ranks include some of the biggest names in the Internet world, such as C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and chief executive of AT & T; Corp., and Steve Case, chairman and chief executive of America Online Inc.

While Armstrong and Case are influencing some of the biggest broadband issues such as whether cable companies must open up their lines to competing Internet service providers many others are impacting broadband from the financing end.

Small venture capital firms in the Silicon Valley, as well as major corporations like Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. and Englewood, Colo.-based MediaOne Group Inc., have set their sights on Los Angeles-area firms particularly those that produce video, audio and other content that will benefit from broadband technology.

“Just about any national player is going to include L.A. in its game plan,” said Jeannette Noyes, research manager for International Data Corp., a Framingham, Mass.-based research firm focusing on the Internet industry.

Noyes and others note that the broadband-related issues being played out nationally and even globally will have major consequences for L.A., among the first cities experiencing the broadband revolution.

Chief among the out-of-towners are Armstrong and Case, heads of New York-based AT & T; and Dulles, Va.-based AOL, respectively. AT & T; and other cable companies have been battling with Internet service providers AOL chief among them over access to cable lines, the primary pipelines for delivering broadband content into homes and offices.

AT & T; is arguing that it should not be forced to open its cable lines to competing ISPs, while AOL has been fighting for “open access.” That would allow AOL and other ISPs to offer their customers broadband service, delivered over cable companies’ lines.

AT & T;, AOL and numerous other out-of-town companies have been spending near-record amounts on lobbyists, in an attempt to influence L.A. decision-makers on the issue. AT & T; in particular is wielding tremendous influence, as owner of a large and growing share of the local cable market. Its clout in L.A. is skyrocketing with its recent purchase of Tele-Communications Inc. and pending acquisition of MediaOne.

While Armstrong directs AT & T;’s overall cable strategy, his point man on the broadband issue is Leo J. Hindery Jr., president of AT & T; Broadband Services. Hindery is said to be keeping close tabs on the open-vs.-closed-access debate in L.A.

With AOL being the nation’s largest ISP, Case also has been playing a major role, fighting for open access. (There are reports, however, that AT & T; and AOL are discussing a deal under which AOL would be given access to AT & T;’s cable systems.)

Yet another out-of-towner influencing the open-access debate is Tom Jermoluk, chairman and chief executive of Excite@Home, a Redwood City-based broadband service provider backed by and aligned with AT & T; and other big-money players.

As for the cable side, there is Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and currently owner of Charter Communications, which recently acquired Marcus Cable and now controls large portions of the L.A. cable market.

Unlike other cable executives, Allen long has been interested in the content side of broadband the video, audio and other data that can be sent over cable lines at high speeds.

“He’s going to be more than your average player in determining where investments are going to be made,” said Rohit Shukla, president of the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance. “He’s going to have a significant role in that area. He’s spent the time to look at issues related to content.”

Outsiders are even playing a major role in what would seem to be L.A.’s forte: content.

“Most of these investors are actually (computer-industry) companies,” said Darius Sankey, a partner at Zone Ventures, an L.A. affiliate of Redwood City-based venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Intel is investing in companies as a means of encouraging innovations that will lead to greater use of its computer chips. The company’s investment portfolio includes stakes in some 275 companies with a combined value of $3.5 billion.

Intel’s investments in L.A. broadband-related companies include Launch Media Inc., operator of a music-focused Web site, and Intertainer Inc., which provides movies and television shows on demand over the Internet. (Both are based in Santa Monica.) Directing Intel’s broadband investments is Bill Miller, director of content and commerce in the corporate business development group.

“Intel has made more than two dozen investments over the past two to three years, designed to help accelerate the deployment of broadband Internet access worldwide,” Miller wrote in a recent e-mail describing the company’s broadband activities. “This is part of a comprehensive corporate strategy to accelerate broadband deployment.”

Playing a role similar to Miller’s, but for MediaOne out of Englewood, Colo., is Natalie Egleston.

As vice president of business development at MediaOne Ventures, she has considerable authority over decisions about which broadband companies MediaOne will invest in.

Through 1998, the company had invested $91 million in broadband outfits nationwide. Egleston says she’s paying closer attention to Los Angeles companies as potential candidates.

Another source of financing that is influencing L.A.-area broadband development is Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Among those making and eyeing investments in L.A. are Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Will Hearst of Menlo Park-based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

These Silicon Valley financiers, and others elsewhere, are influencing the shape and direction of the L.A. broadband industry by the very decisions they are making (and will make).

And while some might be distressed that out-of-towners are exerting such influence on what is developing into one of L.A.’s most-promising industries, industry observers say such concerns are unwarranted. That’s because the interest is not so much motivated by a desire to control how L.A. broadband evolves as it is a desire to participate in its riches.