DOUG H,
I haven't seen anyone response to your message yet, so I will try. Actually I printed your message and tried to read it while I was in the pool today, but my stupid dog took those two pages away and SWALLOWED it, yes, SHE COMSUMED IT!
Although Sprint complained about broadband accessibility on RBOCs and cable companies, the message itself is mostly focus on the frustrating experience of closed access from RBOCs. There is no detail information regarding Sprint and cable. @home has been aggressively rolling out broadband service, a known fact and I am a customer, I couldn't figure out what's the benefit of ION over @home, not to mention ION and @home existing on a same pipe. As you know TCI@home is suffering some technical glitch at this very moment, unless ION can specifically layout the detail of how to coexist on the same pipe (and with 6000 other ISPs) without any difficulty, it benefit nobody but delaying the deployment of broadband, cable that is.
Interesting enough Bell and GTE (again?) seemed to be the focus here. Thanks for the post, now we know who are the hypocrites...
He noted that Sprint has begun a massive effort to collocate xDSL equipment in many Bell and GTE central offices, but has encountered well-documented problems in gaining access. In nearly 20 percent of the RBOC and GTE offices where Sprint has requested the ability to install its own broadband equipment, that critical access has been denied, he said.
Further, more and more local connections now being installed are not designed to be compatible with the xDSL equipment that Sprint and other competitors need to use to bring a choice of broadband services to consumers, he added. As many as half the local connections soon won't be capable of supporting broadband services offered by competitors, Kurtze said.
GTE is leader for advocating cable open access, yet it intentionally delay the deployment of xDSL. This is consistent with a recent SF Examiner column...
Both of these companies have for years had the technical ability to offer high-speed Internet access, and have, in fact, been ordered to open their networks to competitors. If SBC and GTE were truly interested in high-speed open access to the Internet, their own networks would be fully open to competitors by now and consumers would already have a wide choice of high-speed Internet access options.
Message 10390247
And instead of speeding its xDSL availability, GTE tried to advise cable how to run their broadband service...
news.com
Correct me if I am wrong, @home spends around $40 million a year on its equipment, and GTE is ready to use $60,000 to serve 80,000 cable customers. Which means with what @home spending one year, GTE can server 54 million cable customers! Don't forget that is on a SHARED pipe according to GTE! Why can't they just create that kind of miracle on their own backyard, DSL that is. I remember back in December 97, in Palos Verdes Street Fair, COX Cable had a booth and already signing people up for @home service. COX said it will be available by the end of 98, it delayed for a few months, but it's available now. There are four cities on the Peninsula, and COX has a big Peninsula map posted right outside its office detailing the current and future availability of COX@Home to the street level. My phone company is GTE and where is DSL?
I respect you as a frequent contributor on AOL thread, and you know how many AOL investors bet their money on the hope of xDSL, satellites, and wireless. Let me just take one more advantage of you post and get this...
Low earth orbit and geostationary satellites, along with PCS and other wireless technologies, have been cited as alternatives to deliver broadband services to consumers, but those also have limitations and would not be available any time soon, he noted.
Now you know why Steve Case and GTE are lobbying big time for the cable open access. If they can successfully become ISPs of cable, do you think the consumer will really benefit from it? Do you trust GTE as AOL ally? IMHO, the last thing they have in mind is the benefit of consumer on this matter, what they have in mind is to slow down the deployment of broadband, so as to benefit their companies and their shareholders and THAT'S WHY YOU WANT TO INVEST IN AOL AND GET RICH!
I don't know how much technical understanding you have on cable open access, if this is achievable in efficient and effective fashion, I am all for it. I swear to God, I am all for it. |
