 kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | said by ronpin:How many CLEC buildouts (copper or fiber) can you recall during the unbundling period (1996-2003) You mean in the 2 years that Covad et al had to start a company, get funding, hire people, build a network, get ILECs to cooperate, get customers and become a going-concen? That would be zero.
I do think they had a pretty good start though...a fleet of local technicians, real switching equipment in the CO. What they didn't have and what eventually did them in was the ILEC control of the last mile.
The last mile isn't easy to build...there is local municipality-level red tape, right-of-way issues, cost etc. The ILECs, of course, know a little something about these troubles because they are having similar issues in their quest to offer TV....but they have the money to pay off our government and do-away with pesky things like oversight by the representatives of the people actually impacted by the corporate greed!
How many of you had community access channels on cable 10 years ago...complete with training for producers, equipment for creating programming and the works. How many of you have that today? ...and how many of you with fios tv or the non-existent att equivalent have that today?
But seeing as how Ma Bell has had over a hundred years and still can't seem to get DSL to anyone whose house isn't on the roof of the CO, or get a bill right to save their lives...I'd say that's not really a fair measure of a viable business plan.
For the CLECs to have come into their own...especially if you would have liked them to build their own last-mile plant, on a level playing field, it would have take a decade...and that's pretty ambitious.
The playing field is anything but level, the competition is like the wife-beating husband that tells the police he's sorry and he won't do it again but we all know how that works out. ...and the VCs are a fickle lot.
Had we let, say, Northpoint have a virtual monopoly over half the country and given it a free ride when it comes to tax liability with some additional subsidies, I think you would have found that their business model would have turned out to be just as viable as Ameritech's as the mayhem that is the internal workings of a telco is no better or no worse at either company when compared to the other. |
| I think if the CLECs merged they'd have a better chance of competing on a national level with the ILECs. Their own backbone, more $$$, and over all a better advantage by having the customer base behind them. |
