Slashdot Mirror
Becoming a CLEC?
eric76 asks: "It finally happened. DSL has come to the town where I work in Texas. While most would see that as a plus, the problem is that I work for a small ISP offering dialup and fixed wireless. The $26.95 / month DSL could drive us out of business. So I'm looking at what it takes to become a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier). That is, we'd become a local telephone company purchasing telephone service, particularly DSL, at wholesale from the ILEC (SBC) and reselling it at retail prices. Has anyone else gone through this? What did it cost? How long did it take? Is there a minimum size to make it worthwhile?"
A good researcher uses all of his resources. I don't see why it's somehow <b>bad</b> to use the experience of other Slashdotters when you undertake something big. Maybe some of the input is valuable.
Anyway, what does it matter do you? Go to your preferences and get rid of Ask Slashdot and you'll never see it again.
You waited until there was already established competition to do this? Why didn't you do this when the DSL market was unfulfilled?
I'd actually just call covad and have them do your DSL for you. It will save you the headache of becoming your own phone company. It's not like providing DSL service is all that hard either. You can have that setup through your phone company. There's no reason to go off and be your own CLEC when your local phone company should be able to provide DSL to your customers.
Look at it this way. Earthlink DSL == Covad
MSN DSL == Qwest (at least here)
I would take the covad route though. It will mean you will have to setup a redback server to take care of the authentication, but it really saves a lot of headaches.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Do something different. For example, follow the lead of Hometown Wireless and expand as a wireless ISP. Focus on areas without DSL, cater to customers who don't want home voice service by offering optional VOIP, or who may want a dedicated 54Mbps wireless pipe.
Another example. Focus on the "triple play" of voice, video, and data services. Deploy high speed VDSL gear or ethernet, get your own T1s and your own phone numbers for voice. Use Cisco voice termination equipment over VDSL or ethernet, ang get video feeds from Direct TV.
Someone in another comment said that becomming a CLEC will cost you $500,000. I don't doubt it. There are a lot better and cheaper investment and growth strategies out there for you.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
Yes, I know the answer is "oversubscription", and maybe you can justify getting a T3 where you'll get some discount, but still it's a tough business. I have a very hard time seeing how the big boys stay in business, much less the small-timers.