Good article, thanks for posting it Greg. IFLYer, you asked why telcos are dragging their feet in rolling out high speed access. As I understand it, the current regulatory environment is why. If a telco builds all the infrastructure to roll out DSL service, they must offer that service at a competitive price to all ISPs. In addition, if the telco offers net access, their ISP must operate as a separate subsidiary and will not get any price breaks. In other words, PacBell ISP Inc. (for example) will pay the same price for PacBell Telco Inc. DSL lines as MSPG does. The telcos don't want to spend money on all of this DSL infrastructure if they have to share it. This is why the ISPs say that "the FCC should not make any decision that can allow the dominant local phone companies to continue a record of 'eager exploitation of monopoly privileges'". (what a great phrase!)
In the article that Greg posted, the ISPs are saying that the state of affairs outlined above is not sufficient guarantee that they will not get second rate service (bad prices, slow response for problems, etc.) when buying DSL access from the telcos -- the eager exploitation bit. They telcos, after all, will only share their toys if Mom makes them do it, and then they'll do it grudgingly, maybe break the toy when Mom's not looking.
For their part the telcos are telling the FCC that they will have far more incentive to roll out DSL if they don't have to resell it to competitors, or in other words if they can make a whopping big profit off of it (this isn't how they phrase it to the FCC I don't think). Since one of the FCC's stated goals is to promote high speed Net access options, this argument carries some weight.
Hope this helps,
Mr Bones |
