California ISP's Urge SBC to Get Naked > Anything to prove the claim???

Anything to prove the claim???

It's pretty obvious isn't it? The RBOC's are lowering the price of DSL if you take their voice bundle (remember Whiteacre saying DSL should cost more than $50 just 2 years ago?) while raising the customer's "line charge" in order to justify higher line charges to CLEC's under UNE-L. I guess we'll have to await the inevitable litigation to hear the details.

The customer owns the inside wiring, they're on their own for repairs. Many utilize wireless phones now rendering that a moot point anyway.

My access provider, Covad, is the ONLY facilities-based CLEC left and has negotiated commercial access agreements with all RBOC's except BLS. Since they own their network (everything past the last mile) they can also offer naked DSL for those close enough to CO's.

Yes, the customer does own the inside wiring, but who is the customer, and to whom? Typically the repair tech is from the ILEC. his customer isn't the homeowner, that's the end user. The customer for him is the CLEC. But again, which one?

And all it takes is one subscriber that isn't wireless to create the problem.

Covad does own it's own facilities, but it's still renting that last mile. As long as it does, it's going to have to operate at a disadvantage.

CableCos and wireless have at least bypassed the last mile.

On the point of repairs, is it an issue?
If my internal wiring breaks and I call VZ to fix it, if I don't have the repair contract, it'll cost me.

If I get one service from the CLEC and one from the ILEC and my internal wiring breaks, maybe I now have a choice of folks to call to repair it. Hey, competition! So now instead of VZ charging $95/hour to fix my internal wiring, I can call Covad and they'll charge me less... Or I could choose which company to get a repair contract from in the first place.
KM
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eLearning and Website Design | Need an LMS? | Need an LMS & eCommerce solution?

reply to spg
"Covad does own it's own facilities, but it's still renting that last mile. As long as it does, it's going to have to operate at a disadvantage.

CableCos and wireless have at least bypassed the last mile."

Well, they don't operate at a disadvantage under current law, namely UNE-L. Of course RBOC's are already furiously at work trying to rescind that too.

Keep your eye on The US Supreme Court in 2 weeks. The Brand X case wil be heard which will determine if cablecos must provide equal access to their networks a la telcos.

WiMax should allow all to operate independently of the RBOC last mile tyranny.

I'm not getting pumped on WiMax until it's been deployed and proven. But I sure hope Covad and the like are seriously looking at it. I really like not having to deal with either monopoly for my broadband access. If Covad can setup WiMax as the last mile solution, that's just fine by me!

I imagine it'll be pretty expensive to do though. What'll they do - mount equipment to every townships' water towers? Reach agreements with cellphone tower owners (many of whom are ILECs)? Go the franchise route? I'd like to know Covad's plan for long term survival...if they have one.
KM
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eLearning and Website Design | Need an LMS? | Need an LMS & eCommerce solution?

reply to spg

Here's the problem as near as I can tell: You get your dialtone from AT&T, and your DSL from another CLEC. The wires break, not out in the network, but inside the house; who does the repair tech talk to? And who gets charged?

reply to KoolMoe
" Having a choice of two monopolies is not really much of a choice..."

You got that right KM...it's called a duopoly and leads to collusion on prices.

I don't know about Covad's long term plan for survival, but they are pushing VOIP + access for small/medium businesses with prioritized voice, much like Speakeasy. In fact, you're helping their survival by with Speakeasy DSL which is wholesaled from Covad (great comapany, Speakeasy!). I sure hope they make it because I would hate to have to give up my dedicated DSL line and call Verizon again.