Dear Frank:
You are absolutely correct that not all RBOCs are alike.
The xDSL price comparison I saw involved PacBell,
USWest and Ameritech. PacBell came out poorly, but
both US West and Ameritech had attractive prices.
In fact, if it is serious about opening up local
phone markets, the FCC should be careful to treat
each RBOC based on its individual competitive stance.
If one of the BOCs is allowed to go in the long distance
business after opening up its local market, you can bet
that all the other BOCs will follow suit quickly.
Regarding FON's ION network, I hope that it will
not be exclusively targeted at xDSL service, but will
also include broadband wireless. For DSL service,
since xDSL is a copper technology, I think that
xDSL service will need to go through the RBOCS
(in spite of attempts by DSL integrators to break
the BOCs copper monopoly).
One last comment: with AT&T's takeover of TCI,
many commentators have assumed that the RBOCs
would be in trouble. However, this takeover probably
accelerates the time when the RBOCS will be allowed
in the long distance business. Assuming that each
one of the BOCs buys one of the new alternate
long distance providers (QWST, LVLT, Williams, IXC,
Frontier), wouldn't AT&T be in danger of extinction?
Best regards,
Bernard Levy |
