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Independent ISPs vs the Bells: DSL Outrage
Blowit writes: "The American ISP Association has been assisting independent ISPs with a battle to help regulate the DSL market for fair competition. Yesterday, the FCC Slapped SBC with a $100,000 fine due to "its willful violation of an order to produce information about its provisioning of DSL to ISPs." Across up in Canada, Independent Members of CAIP is also battling Bell Canada's DSL monopoly by filing a claim with the CRTC. ISPs on both sides of the border feel the DSL pinch and is looking for some relief/compensation to be able to offer competitive DSL solutions."
If somebody actually provided DSL in my area, then I would be interested in getting it. But I'm in the Canadian Bell monopoly area - and too far from the Bell switch to get DSL, at least according to their specs - 12 Km is a little to far for a unit specced as 4 Km - but I do wonder if the lines were open to competitors whether somebody elses equipment could work at that distance. Meanwhile, the only wireless network provider (for high-speed links) in my area filed for bankruptcy last year.
But the other side of the coin here is cost. Commercial DSL connections are several hundred $CDN a month - home DSL is about $CDN50, and may be why the wireless provider went under.
Just because one battle (access information) has been lost by The Phone Companys, this doesn't mean that the general DSL landscape is anywhere near changing yet.
Liquor
Sanity is a highly overrated commodity.
For the most part this is a mute point. I would love to hear from other people who deal in the ISP industry, but as far as I knew DSL was gone.
:P
I live in a medium sized city, and thanks to Qworst DSL has pretty much been driven out. With the high cost of equipment, its not even looking like a viable business opertunity anymore. Is there something i'm missing? Has it hit market saturation? Or is it just the fact the telco wont let us have more than 2 COs?
Sorry, a bit offtopic. but this is something i have needed to get off my chest
symetrix. We are building a religion, a limited edition.
Simply put... The U.S. Telecom Act of 1999 is a joke.
You've got Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La) sitting on the Telecommunication committee with the fattest wad of unspent baby bell money in his pocket.
If it wasn't for Mr. Tauzin, I'm pretty sure that the CLEC would have a more favorable competitive environment.
Sorry, CLEC, you are going to have to setup a Political Action Committee (PAC) to counter the already swayed Telecom committee members of the House.
Until the CLEC get their collective duffus act together, Baby Bell will win this one: lock, stock and barrel.
No fine is too big for Baby Bell: it is just the cost of doing dirty business (equates with marketing budget).
I'm ashame that I voted for that fat cat. I'll contribute heavily to see him gone by next election.
I've very glad to hear anyone who has slammed the bells for not providing adequate access to independent ISPs. I only wish there were further steps we as individuals could take to help the State take further action.
I have IDSL in my house and it's great- fantastic. When there are problems- you guessed it- Verizon is busy trying to cause problems and then blames everyone but themselves. Why they don't recognize the cable modem threat is beyond me.
Justin
Bell is the dominant player in DSL in Ontario and Quebec. It doesn't provide DSL to the rest of Canada.
Also, there are several competitive DSL providers in Ontario and Quebec, especially in the larger urban areas. They tend to focus on business service, though.
Bell is huge. I believe that with the recent Nortel layoffs it has become the single largest private employer in Canada. And it does have its fingers in a lot of other telcos, especially in the four (small) maritime provinces, where it owns the parent company of the local providers. However, it's inaccurate to portray it as a Canadian monopoly, because Bell doesn't even provide local phone service to the majority of Canadians. The major competitor is Telus, which is the main provider of local phone service to Alberta and British Columbia. Telus has begun to provide local phone service to businesses in Bell's areas; IMO it's only a matter of time before it starts selling DSL competitively.
Note: Telus and Bell hate each other. Passionately. :)
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
Well, DSL had major limitations to begin with. The only reason it took off so quick is because many people didn't/dont't trust the cable compaines. With DSL's distance limitations and the fact that it has a limited market. Take a rural hood with 200 homes figure 20 to 30 of them will purchase either cable or DSL ( that is being generous ). Its a tough market. What CLEC or bell in their right mind would put a new switch closer to the homes. Not at $50 bucks a home per month and with 2 or 3 hands in the pot.
the telephone companies built the telephone lines. why should some third-party company be allowed the chance to profit from the use of the telephone companies lines in the name of competition? they didn't help build the network in the first place!
the current (asinine) situation we are in baffles me. maybe this analogy sucks, but just follow me...
mcdonalds makes big macs.
wendys, burger king, and arbys wish to resell big macs under their own branding and ask mcdonalds for their consent.
mcdonalds declines.
wendys, burger kind and arbys sue mcdonalds, crying 'anti-trust!' and 'anti-competition!'
i dunno. maybe i'm just completely lost.
their counterproductive bitching and switch their focus by moving to a different networking scheme.
I live in Saskatchewan, in a town of 5000 people.
Believe it or not, we have a choice of THREE Internet providers here, two of them "high-speed".
I get my Internet access from Sask Tel (the provincial telephone company) for about CDN$45 per month for a DSL connection. And they provide the DSL modem; I only need to provide the computer, a network card, and the ethernet cable to hook up to the modem.
The other high speed provider is Image Communications (http://www.imagecable.com) who use microwave transmission towers to provide high-speed Internet access and "cable tv" as well.
Not bad for a town of 5000, as I said.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
Acting like a monopoly, who'd a thunk?
SBC was starting to see a lot of lines being leased for use as DSL lines. So, the started a big program to install DSL lines and used their marketing muscle, monopoloy power, and deep pockets to put all the little guys out of business. Then, when there is no competition they slooow down (nearly stop) deploying DSL and raise price.
Then when someone dares ask if they broke the rules to control the market they pay a piddling $100,000 dollar fine rather than answering the questions... Sheesh, a $100,000 dollars is more than it costs each time one of their executive asks their research department (TRI) a question.
Stonewolf
This is probably too much for your mind to handle, but I'll try anyway.
The Romans built the first British road system. Today, many of these roads are still in use, even by people who - horror of horrors - are not descended from people who were ever Roman citizens.
The Italians do not complain that the British use 'their' roads. The Romans got pretty good usage out of them for a significant time, and now the peopo live near them use them as infrastructure.
Similarly, the telephone companies. The phone companies were granted monopolies for a limited time to encourage them to build the networks in the first place.
They've now reaped their reward pretty well. It is time to thank them, let them keep all the cash that they have accumulated, and open up the networks.
At least, this is the approach we're taking in Canada. We now have the lowest Internet connection costs of any country in the world. I'd say it's working.
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
The same thing is happening in Europe as well.