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FCC's Triennial Review Released
rednaxela writes "The FCC, after six months of deliberation, released the Triennial Review order on the evening of August 21. The Order makes substantial changes to the rules governing the obligations of the regional bell operating companies (i.e., SBC, BellSouth, Verizon and Qwest) to lease their networks to the competitive local exchange carriers (e.g., MCI, AT&T) for the provision of local phone service and, perhaps more interestingly to this audience, broadband. Brief summary here, link to the order and the FCC Commissioners' statements at www.fcc.gov."
This, folks, is called Capitalism. The government is corrupt and controlled by the big corporations.
Capitalism has nothing to do with the government being corrupt. Communist and socialist countries have corrupt governments too...
You have made a logical fallacy of causality.
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In Soviet Russia, the overlords welcome you!
Dude, consider yourself lucky. The only boadband I can get is satellite and they really gouge you because they know you don't have a choice. Takes about $600 for the equipment. Yes, you have to buy the equipment :(
May the source be with you!
Move to Korea and get 40 megabit for 32$ a month. Japan is quite a step up from what you get in the US as well. link.
This means that, with a decrease in competition, we'll see a nice big hike in the cost of DSL... Welcome to America, where the government bows to the will of the big companies...
Unless I misread the FCC order, it isn't what it's portrayed to be.
Before the order, the ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers - i.e. The Old Monopoly Phone Company, mostly baby-bells) were required to sell their whole infrastructure to their competition (the CLECs), at a price less than it cost them to build more. Not just copper pair and fiber, but timeslots, switching equipment, DSLAM channels, DS1(T1 bandwidth and format - in copper, fiber, or microwave), DS3 (T3 bandwidth and format, ditto), and STS-n (SONET bandwidth and format), repeaters, SONET nodes, and so on.
Of course this meant that if the ILECs expanded the infrastructure to meet the load, they lost money. So they dragged their feet as much as possible, until virtually all the CLECs went under. And STILL they dragged their feet, because if they ever actually started builiding out there'd be a new crop of CLECs to compete with them using their own investment. And the equipment manufacturers started going belly-up, the bulk of the fiber remained dark, and the broadband market remained inadequately served.
The rule change was not to ELIMINATE this, but to cut it back to only the outside plant. They have to rent the CLECs copper pair to your house (on which the CLEC can hang their OWN DSLAM and maybe a phone switch), but they don't have to rent the slots on their own DSLAMs and switches, or connect the CLEC's DSLAM to the ILEC's POTS line (renting the DSL part of their local phone service and requiring a truck roll every time a new subscriber buys DSL from an ILEC). They have to rent the dark fiber, but not the repeaters, network node line cards, and timeslots in their bright fibers. They have to provide access to the drops, phone closets, junction boxes, apartment house/business building internal wiring, etc. where they own them.
And this is mitigated somewhat: Existing connections are grandfathered, so they can't just cut 'em off. Where they wired a neighborhood with a fiber-to-remote-concentrator / copper-to-the-house hybrit, instead of copper from house to central office, they still have to rent that out and provide access to DSL channels in the concentrator. They have to provide DS1s and up to two DS3 loops to businesses - though nothing more than signal hauling. And state communication commissions can require more on a case-by-case basis.
The result is that:
The ILECs still have to provide wire and switching for POTS service to their competitors.
The ILECs still have to provide raw copper and fiber to their competitors - for broadband or POTS.
The ILECs do NOT have to provide the electronics to DRIVE the copper and fiber (unless they've taken a shortcut that makes the copper or fiber unavailable unbundled).
The ILECs do NOT have to sell just the DSL portion of one of THEIR POTS lines. (CLECs must rent the whole line unless they cut an individual deal.)
So the monopoly-subsidized installed base of copper and fiber is made available to all on a level basis. But the new equipment to put broadband on it must be installed separately by each carrier.
So (IF the regulated prices on the copper and fiber are set correctly) the ILECs, CLECs, cable internet companies, wireless internet companies are now competing on an equal footing.
The ILECs no longer have an incentive to drag their feet on broadband instalation for fear of subsidizing their competition, and can build out, competing with cable and wireless on a more equal footing and letting the technology drive the costs
If the CLECs revive or new ones
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
This, folks, is called Capitalism.
No, this is what is called Republicanism. Since Bush and his collection of big business ass-kissers took office, we have seen the Justice Department let Microsoft off the hook with a slap on the wrists, the EPA Clean Air Act gutted, and FCC regulations changed to allow huge media conglomerates to crush their competition. The list of such atrocities goes on and on.
I don't understand why people vote for Republicans and then act shocked that big business controls the government.