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FCC May Push Bells to Unbundle DSL
Carl Bialik writes "The FCC is nearing approval of two big phone deals -- Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T -- according to people familiar with the situation cited by the Wall Street Journal. But regulators are considering requiring asset sales and other moves, including the offering of unbundled DSL, 'without requiring consumers -- mostly home users -- to subscribe to phone service. Verizon already allows some customers to do that, but SBC doesn't. ... Patrick Mahoney, an analyst at Yankee Group, said that traditional phone lines are cash cows, so allowing customers to buy Internet access without traditional phone service would be costly to telecom providers.'"
Sure you *can* get it unbundled, but you would loose out on the special $100 per month discount for having both services... and who wants $140 per month DSL just so it can be unbundled??
http://www.speakeasy.com/ already offers a "naked DSL" option, but they do charge a premium for it over standard DSL-- and they're not even a phone company.
Ideally with companies being required to separate the two there will be companies like Speakeasy that are now able to offer unbundled connectivity without charging extra for it.
We can but hope, anyway...
Some good news coming from the FCC for a change. As an independant ISP using SBC transport it's been a huge pet peeve that they subsidize their DSL costs with their phone service(s). Until this new jerk got into the FCC it was actually illegal subsidization that was putting an unfair advantage in the hands of the telcos.
Of course the fact that DSL is provided over a phone network that was built with tax dollars then handed over to the telcos to be maintained doesn't mean anything anymore...so why shouldn't they have a government sponsored monopoly.
Of course this is flame bait for people who don't understand the way the economy works and how people like myself are important for getting services into remote areas that neither cable or the telcos actually care about until people like myself start complaining that we have large amounts of customers that went it in that area.
The short answer is yes, pricing is arbitrary.
The Bells own the copper so they can basically charge as much as they please. Granted, they shove two services over the same pair of wires so one could argue that the only overhead for the telco would be the bandwidth but you also have to add in the switching equipment, wages for technicians, support costs and maintenance. On the flip side, the Bells are using infrastructure that was bought and paid for decades ago and they're basically squeezing every possible revenue stream out of their equipment so their costs aren't really any higher (other than bandwidth) to deliver DSL to a customer.
The Bell's argument for not allowing unbundled pairs (dsl only) has to do with the regulatory requirements placed on DSL service. Now that DSL is classified as an unregulated information service that argument loses merit. Also keep in mind that VoIP is also unregulated for the most part. Add to this the fact that the Bells are beginning to convert portions of their networks to VoIP while building new, high performance ATM networks optimized to carry VoIP traffic. My guess is that the Bells will begin to offer unbundled DSL loops and shortly after this becomes available they will roll out VoIP services. This would allow the Bells to deliver high-speed Internet and dial tone over unregulated mediums essentially bypassing the bulk of the regulations and taxes placed upon telecommunications saving them a heap of money.
I may be way out in left field on this but after having a few discussions with my account managers as well as technicians working for one of the Bells I think this is where they are heading. Bells are HUGE profit driven corporations so they are always looking for new ways to generate revenue, usually at the expense of competition.
This is somewhat of a long-winded reply that has strayed off course a bit but hopefully I've made my point. I'm not going to pretend that I am some sort of authority on how the Bells operate. I am basing my reply on observations I have made and personal experience. I'm just throwing my two cents into the pot.