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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2700)	1/8/1999 11:02:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 12823

Frank & all: Talk about a bad decision the CPUC is making, look here in CA. HiSAC Says Pacific Bell DSL Service Gets 'Free Ride' January 8, 1999 -- The High Speed Access Coalition (HiSAC) announced its disappointment with today's decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to prevent competitors of Pacific Bell from sharing residential phone lines to provide affordable high-speed Internet access. "The High Speed Access Coalition is disappointed that the CPUC has declined at this time to give consumers affordable high-speed Internet access services from Pacific Bell's competitors,'' said David M. Wilson, executive director of HiSAC. "At the same time, HiSAC is encouraged by the Public Utility Commission's appreciation for new line-sharing technology and by its promise to revisit the issue of line sharing in the near future.'' Wilson also said HiSAC strongly disagrees with Pacific Bell's implication that competitors want to share the local phone lines "for free.'' "The only company getting a free ride right now is Pacific Bell,'' said Wilson. "California consumers are already paying for the phone line and all of its capacity. If residents want to use their phone lines to send and receive data through competing high-speed access providers, they should have the right to do so without having to pay twice for the same phone line.'' The applicant involved in the CPUC decision was PDO Communications, Inc., a San Jose-based high-speed access provider that proposes to provide high-speed Internet access to the home market for less than $50 a month. HiSAC says that PDO has repeatedly stated that it would pay any additional costs of line sharing that are required by the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act. "Pacific Bell overlooks the fact that neither Pacific Bell nor PDO owns the local phone line,'' said Wilson. "Pacific Bell's objection against line sharing forces consumers to either use Pacific Bell's own high-priced DSL service or to pay for another phone line if they use a competing service, despite the fact that a separate line is not necessary for providing DSL on existing phone lines.'' Wilson said HiSAC would support the CPUC if the Commission wanted to allocate the costs of the shared line between data and voice services. "We believe that competing providers should pay for their use of the phone line, provided that Pacific Bell's own ADSL division pays the same fee as well.'' The High Speed Access Coalition (HiSAC) was founded by companies and individuals interested in ensuring that American households benefit from the same competition and choice of service that large corporations have with high-speed Internet connections.