| DSL- walk softly and carry a big stick The death of northpoint is just another mile marker on this crazy highway called DSL.
Does anyone get the feeling that this industry got off the ground before it could really fly?
Does anyone remember when the phone company monopoly was "broken?" Ha.
The DSL industry has been rotting from the inside for a long time (day one?) - The major carriers had a vision of nationwide, high speed networks for less. And with less price comes more consumers, right?
Next scene - NP (or your carrier here) and some knuckle-headed "businessmen" who were starting up ISP's, take all the millions of VC money and start spreading it around. What do they spend it on? Advertising anywhere and everywhere, regardless of availability - and outlandish commissions for the sales folks at ISP's to sell the product if the customer "is breathing."
The idea being - as it was in those dizzy headed days - get a chunk of market share and name recognition and you'll be the next AOL . D'oh.
One major problem was - the phone companies still existed. Yes, friendly Verizon, SBC or whoever would gladly take your order for a loop delivery - and promptly blow off the appointments three times before cutting your normal phone service . "By the way... did you know you can get this service right from us Mr. Consumer? Here, take a pamphlet and you'll come around."
Also, keep in mind the fact that line-sharing didnt get up and running with carriers until fall of last year. Again, baby bells were making it quite difficult while driving customers away from DSL wholesalers and ISP's.
On top of these wonderful market conditions - companies (ISps) in general seemed to have lost all practical business sense or got caught daydreaming about how everything "will be better once they clear the hump." ISPs drove for sales that they could not provision in an attempt to capture customers. in addition, with all of the pitfalls in the installation process the idea seemed to be - "keep filling the bucket and eventually we'll get a lot of customers, regardless of the leaks". The majority of provisioning systems for companies (ISP-CLEC/CLEC-ILEC) were downright archaic - which added more stress to the whole process.
Add to this the ever dropping price wars which had ISP's eating hardware and installation costs like Dom Deloise at the all-you-can-eat buffet.
What do you get - the Venture Capitalists finally wake up from the "we dont care if it turns a profit" party and have a hell of a shock. So, funding is pulled just when ISP's are turning it around and getting some real solutions in place. You know the story from there....ISP's cant pay the bills and close down, next comes the CLECs. Goodnight folks.
And what are we left with? A few greasy California ISP CEO's and presidents looking for new jobs, some cheap office space for rent and the phone companies sitting pretty as they merge back together. I'd say this proves two things -
1. The last 2 years or so of frivolous spending by all the DSL ISp's and CLEC's have served to do one thing - bring up public awareness and desire for a product which is now mostly provided (with some notable exceptions) by the ILEc's. "Thanks for all your hard work guys - we'll take over from here."
2. Breaking up a monopoly is not such a easy little thing. Not in principle nor in practice. You can try, but eventually the government administrations change and public attention shifts. The remaining bodies left after a break up are still present - and because they were an essential part of the respective industry, they can still wield their power to make it more than difficult for young upstarts. What to do? Well, I don't think we have the answer just yet - more informed public discussion on a national stage is necessary.
Thank you for reading this (if you did) - i'm just glad to get it all out after working in DSL for 2 years and seeing it all hit the fan. Just leads me to think - While we were laughing at the baby bells for not being "on top of the game" and too big/slow - who was laughing at us? ......damn. |
