Re: SBC- Fighting the CLECs with FCC 99-238
Thread- I'm pretty certain this strategy is going to become very important if other RBOCs follow suit. This may mean a lot more ADSL will be rollout via the RT(remote terminal). Contrary to what the first article says, it's not so much that it's Alcatel gear, but the network design(ATM out to the RT) that keeps the CLECs off. I still think it was a good move by SBC. And I'm wondering if the RT ADSL service will be upgradeable to VDSL when SBC sees the demand is there? -MikeM(From Florida)
***************************
SBC: Don't Mess with Our DSL
March 14, 2000- SBC execs yesterday lambasted an attempt by CLECs to get the FCC to stop SBC from using proprietary Alcatel gear in its $6 billion Project Pronto DSL rollout.
"Their strategy is a calculated and anticompetitive ploy," SBC VP Priscilla Hill-Ardoin said. "The FCC has repeatedly held that it is not the role of the commission to select the 'best' or 'preferred' technology."
CLECs worry that SBC-specified, Alcatel-only gear will limit them to offering only ADSL.
______________________
CLECs Declare War Over Project Pronto
March 8, 2000- A fight is quietly brewing over the future of DSL that promises to equal the 1996 battle over the interconnection regime.
Oddly, SBC's Project Pronto is touching off the war. The $6 billion DSL-network upgrade, a landmark on SBC's map of its broadband future, has CLECs furious. Think of SBC and the CLECs as the U.S.-Russian alliance during World War II -- a coalition of natural antagonists, one of which thinks its ally is secretly planning an empire.
But this is telecom, of course, so don't look for anything as dramatic as a Berlin blockade. SBC's opening salvo was a dry Feb. 15 request that the FCC interpret its conditions on the SBC-Ameritech merger so as to allow SBC to own DSL line cards in the gateways being built as part of Project Pronto. That relatively uncontroversial issue exploded after data CLECs got a look at SBC's design for its DSL network.
SBC's plan is to push fiber as far out the network as possible, with fiber-fed "neighborhood gateways" aggregating copper local DSL loops. So far, so good. The primary limitation of DSL is the length of the local loop. The further the signal travels on fiber, the more customers will be able to reach it. |
