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reply to babbster

Re: Qwest Used FTTN DSL To Make Me Very Mad!

You were not misinformed. Qwest will not let an alternate ISP service FTTN at any price.

Mike has a particularly one sided opinion on this larger issue. But then again, this *is* a political argument, and that generates strong opinion -- do you encourage competition on publicly subsidized infrastructure, or encourage monopoly with hopes that extraordinary profit will lead to technological investment? *Shrug* The current administration believes the latter, and its FCC made significant policy changes that reflect that.

But from a purely business standpoint, sure, Mike is right, why would Qwest want to share with competitors what they can operate as a monopoly?

But, no, of course CLECs don't get anything for free. In fact, we are only able to lease at a wholesale rate that is usually higher than the retail rate, which is why you see less and less CLEC options available on the open market.

And non-CLEC Qwest ISP partners are paying through the nose to provide DSL service to their subscribers in ATM and transport fees (on top of the user's own retail payments) so that, in fact, Qwest is making double profit on alternate ISP subscribers.

Maybe they've determined that the oversell margins on ADSL2+ more than compensate for that additional revenue on the ISP partner model. Or maybe they're just worried enough about encroaching technology that may render their network obsolete, and they're taking a white knuckle hold on everything they own. Their litigious history certainly could suggest the latter.