[IP] FCC kills mandated DSL wholesale and sanctifies a wireline duopoly as vibrant competition - Gone is Muni FTTH?
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Francois Menard (Mailing List Account)" <fm-listproc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 6, 2005 3:50:42 AM EDT
To: CYBERTELECOM-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: FCC kills mandated DSL wholesale and sanctifies a wireline
duopoly as vibrant competition - Gone is Muni FTTH?
Reply-To: Telecom Regulation & the Internet <CYBERTELECOM-
L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
FCC kills mandated DSL wholesale and sanctifies a wireline duopoly as
vibrant competition - Gone is Muni FTTH?
by François at 02:31AM (CDT) on August 6, 2005 | Permanent Link
http://tim.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/6/1112664.html
In a press statement issued today, the FCC commissionners have agreed
that the future of broadband in the US was better left in the hands
of market forces.
Commissionner Copps however concedes that what the FCC has chosen to
do today amounts to prospective regulatory making on a purely
theoritical basis. That has not stopped him however from concurring
with the other Commissionners with the only announced accountability
of the FCC being that he says he intends to keep tabs to see if what
is supposed to happen truly does. But just who will be there to keep
tabs when the term of Commissioner Coops expires on May 1, 2006?
In the same statement, the FCC annnounces that it intends to issue a
public inquiry in which it will begin to investigate issues
associated with the walledgardenization of broadband access and by
interence, must now look into intercarrier compensation in the
context of broadband peering at public Internet NAPs which to this
date has remained free from FCC investigations.
While ISPs in Canada can behave like ostriches and duck their heads
in the dirt and avoid thinking about the ripple effects of the FCC
continuing to push the limits of the impossible in avoiding to
consider the impact of their policies on the survival of the same
independant ISPs which have created the market of retail internet
services, we can bet that the ILECs in Canada will take advantage of
the Telecom Review and start pointing out to the grand canyon
emerging between CRTC policies and the FCC policies.
In analyzing regulatory policies from the perspective of a regulatory
framework which is supposed to lead to sustainable competition by
remaining conducive to further facilities-based entry, consequences
of the disappearance of mandated wholesale of DSL facilities are
evident, that is, no more reasons for retail price discipline, thus
no more price floors, which will arguably lead to foreclosure of
further entry by other entities than the incumbent Telco's and cable
carriers.
Consequently, the risks of Municipal FTTH entry have just been
quintupled - do it and the ILECs and the Cable Carriers will
immediately react by way of targeted decreases of DSL and cable modem
services only for as long as necessary to kill Municipal FTTH while
still in the eggshell.
While the FCC is surely not foolish enough to believe that the public
interest will be served by targeted price decreases of ILEC and MSO
fat wasteband, the FCC seems to believe that they are acting in the
public interest in making it more difficult to make a business case
for municipal FTTH.
Unlike the CRTC, the actions of the FCC remain elusive as to whether
the FCC truly believes that its prospective regulatory theories are
compliant with the FCC's statutory obligation to administer a
regulatory framework conducive to sustainable competition by ensuring
that regulatory relief will exist for other carriers than ILEC and
MSOs interested in making investments into their own facilities.
It is frustrating to see the American public endorse the fact that
the FCC will be leading another 7 year market experiementation cycle
in total disregard for the lessons supposed to be learned from the
previous experiementation cycle with telecom competition concluding
today.
With today's FCC action, it seems a safe bet that in 7 years, there
will be no more wireline providers serving homes of Americans than
their are today with only some exceptions coming to mind, Lafayette,
being the latest one.
It is sad to see the FCC officialize new rules that will allow
targeted below cost pricing by incumbent Telco's and MSO's with no
systematic regulatory relief before the FCC. This could hardly be
construed as a positive thing.
-=Francois=-
819 692 1383
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