[February 3, 2005]

Since I know that Verizon and as likely other BOCs and ILECs will read this, I am going to take the opportunity to make a few pointed comments to those entities, for whatever good it will do. I will be brief.

I recognize that there are a lot of highly paid executives at the phone company (generic) who believe it is in their best interest and the best interest of their company to reestablish the old Telco monopoly. I suspect that many of them are surprised at how easy it has been to move forward. That said, in the arena of Internet Service, I believe that it is not in the best interest of the phone company to kill off their partners and thus be left to go head-to-head with what will be their only serious competition, cable companies. Simply put, dial tone customer service is absolutely first rate. In the rare instances where telephone service fails, a local phone company has someone available to take the trouble call and someone in the field, if needed, to restore service, in most cases with no more than a days delay. During times of disaster, there is nobody better than the phone company. That doesn't translate into great Internet Service.

The Internet has undergone major changes in the past year. Advertising Parasites, Spyware, Malware and the like have become more epidemic than virus, which in itself is still a major pest. Computers have aged and become out of date and less reliable. More and more less savvy people are attempting to use the Internet for their own purposes. Telephone companies are really good at servicing the telephone wire network and hardware along with switches.

Internet customer service means individual software on individual customer's computers and to some extent, training of individual customers. This isn't something that telephone companies deal with effectively.

There is less and less customer service available for those who need it. Large National providers have moved their service offshore; discount providers have started charging by the minute for service. Simply put, Internet users are fast becoming disenchanted with the service provided and the risks involved in being on the web. As Verizon well knows, good customer service is expensive to provide, especially in rural areas.

Yet, as said, there is a need for more and better customer service, not less.

Well, here we are, your best bet to compete with the cable companies—who are charging a higher price than your retail rates. We are already your wholesale customers. And if you would support us instead of killing us off, we could provide the level of customer service that is now needed—especially in rural areas where you are now installing DSL facilities at an accelerated rate.

We can roll the trucks with computer professionals in them to customer's premise. We fix computers. We network computers—after all, if you kill us off, who is going to support all that broadband you provide? And we can provide the level of quality customer service that is increasingly difficult and expensive to provide through conventional banks of technicians with hold times and sometimes helpful, sometimes not, computer and Internet advice.

I do customer service for a living. There is a place for someone who can say, "Okay, you have a real problem. Why don't you bring it in to the shop for a free diagnosis?" Verizon, you can't do that, I can.

And if you allow real broadband competition, there is far less chance that someone is going to start screaming "divestiture" again, as well they might, otherwise.

— End