DSL

DSL Prime Editorial: Set Them Free

In this editorial, DSL Prime asks Michael Powell, Chairman of the FCC, to intervene to preserve competition in the United States, and notes that Verizon is promising to allow competition.

by Dave Burstein DSL Prime [August 30, 2001]

Editorial: Powell, don't let them choke the Internet
Mike Powell, FCC chair, last year told me he expects the net to enable more program diversity and competition in the next few years. I replied it won't happen if the current plans to erect toll booths on the Internet are blocked, and he said he hopes that not how things would work out. Video requires reliable speeds of about one meg, easily delivered to most DSL customers.

Here's some practical ways for Powell and others to make the future work:

• Enforce ordinary truth-in-advertising and anti-fraud laws against deceptive broadband providers. They all advertise and promote their internet services, and claim high speeds. In SBC's case, 1.5M or 6M. Of course they can't guarantee the speed of the Internet (or break the laws of physics for long connections). They can and should be required to actually deliver those speeds through their networks. The original Pronto specifications, according to an official SBC spokesperson, were to "reliably deliver the 1.5 and 6 meg"
  
  
• Allow others to connect at their network speed. They cannot meet the legal requirement to deliver the speeds advertised without defining points at which they will accept traffic at that speed. They must define points where others —ISPs, Sony's MovieFly video service, Akamai—can provide the content at that speed. It is simply deceptive advertising to speak of high-speed Internet and not accept traffic at that speed. If the telcos create such peering points, others will bring the traffic to them—and share the cost.
  
  
• Carefully monitor prices in near-monopolies. Enforce anti-trust. As we write above, a key obstacle to competition is the prices of the unbundled elements necessary to purchase from the phone companies. They have been set at levels that make competition difficult or impossible in most cases. This is clear in DSL, where ISPs dealing with the telcos are charged wholesale prices for DSLAM access that are twice as high as Germany and more than Bell Canada's retail charge including ISP service. Result—three years of rhetoric from the bells about "open access", but they control 90 percent or so of the ISP customers.
  
  
• Hold hearings to get the hidden facts. An FCC hearing this spring provided the facts that made this reporting possible, where SBC provided answers they had previously refused to reporters. "You'll never get any information from SBC" I was told separately by the telecom reporters of two of America's most respected newspapers, and this is information we need to know to make public policy. SBC is not the only company hoping the world makes decisions based on lies in their press releases—the real information is very hard to find. SBC is not evil incarnate, nor are the other companies in this business necessarily better.

Reporters should do their jobs and get the information anyway. I know how hard it is to find information the companies are trying to hide, but often it's available. I found my absolute confirmation that SBC would not provide outside ISPs service at an FCC hearing on remote terminals, where they testified they could not reliably deliver even half the 1.5 meg speed advertised.

A month later, SBC widely briefed the press on how they themselves would be offering video reliably delivered at rate they claimed was impossible.

Verizon: We'll be open
Tom Tauke, a ex-congressman, is Verizon's lead in D.C. We will, of course, wait for the details, but we applaud the principles he articulated:

"As we change our networks to offer broadband, we're assuring every competitive carrier that they can either resell our services or use out network facilities to get access to any customer.

If you're a content provider or ISP, you'll have open access to our network, with non-discriminatory treatment, terms and conditions.

If you're a consumer, you'll have access to more affordable broadband connections as mass deployment drives down the price points to more reasonable levels.

If you're sitting on the next great "killer app," you'll have access to the kind of mass market the broadband world has been waiting for.

And no matter who you are or what your role in the digital economy, you'll finally have access to the next generation of innovative, life-enhancing services, content, software—all made possible by the power of broadband.

Verizon wants to be part of this revolution. For millions of households and businesses, our networks can be the infrastructure that carries the next wave of the Internet revolution into their lives."

We are journalists, not investment advisers; invest at your own risk and do further research.

Copyright 2001 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

"The power of the printing press belongs solely to those who own the presses"
—A.J. Leibling

The Internet is the cheapest printing press ever invented.

1. DSL Prime News	4. Prime News Briefs: People
2. DSL Prime on Covad and Rhythms	5. SBC's Nefarious Plan
3. Prime News Briefs: Technology	6. DSL Prime Editorial