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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (9304)	11/26/2000 1:33:04 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 12823

Thanks, Mike.. that is indeed interesting. You may recall some discussions we've had here in the past where I opined that the ILECs might be required to unbundle their fiber at the lambda level at some point. I believe that the last time we discussed this was at about the time that the FCC's copper line sharing order was handed down. There is a provision somewhere at the FCC level that includes fiber in the list of elements that must be shared, or unbundled, but I've only seen mention of this in the most obscure of circumstances. I suppose that is because of the still-high costs of wdm that no one has pursued it yet in a residential context (or even in the commercial sector, except indirectly through the resale of T1/T3 services which are fiber-derived, but those don't count here). All, to the best of my knowledge. And let's not forget the fact that the ILECs didn't view their residential neighborhood fiber as a resale opportunity for dark fiber. Instead, historically they only put in minimal strand counts to meet stated objectives, so there is no abundant "spare fiber count" to speak of. Even where they have dark fibers lying dormant, they can make a case for why they've been reserved for future use. I say this because most of the fiber that the ILECs have already placed in the ground <and carried overhead pole to pole> are already "targeted" facilities and reserved for specific ILEC purposes. WDM could put an end to that, in some cases, but that's an expensive proposition for short haul, and one that would be rather messy to administer, IMO. But in Fiber to the Neighborhood situations (from the central office to the remote field node), and from field nodes to MDUs, or to other high-concentration commercial and residential structures, I'm all for it, because in those situations it's easier to prove-in the wdm. FAC