[1st-mile-nm] Jim Baller Posting

Tue Jan 15 12:00:19 PST 2008

Interesting.  I've been meaning to send this.  New Mexico is last.

The FCC recently released their annual "Local Telephone Competition" report,
which offers insight into the competition for local telephone service
through 2006. The numbers weren't terribly surprising. CLECs continue to
lose market share for local loops, and as of December 2006, provided 17.1%
of the 167.5 million local access loops in the U.S. That percentage is down
from December 2005's number of 17.9%. According to the FCC's numbers, CLECs
peaked with 19.1% of local access loops in June 2005. Of course local loops
are declining in general, thanks primarily to wireless substitution. There
were 175.1 million local loops in December 2005, compared to December 2006's
167.5 million. RBOCs continued forbearance efforts, where they attempt to
escape competitive mandates, aren't helping either. CLECs highest
penetration of local loops occurred in Rhode Island (46%) and lowest
penetration occurred in New Mexico (8%). Even though it's a year old, this
FCC report provides a wealth of information about local telephone
competition and includes extensive data about ILECs, CLECs, and wireless
carriers.

Michael Orshan
www.marsound.com

-----Original Message-----
From: 1st-mile-nm-bounces at crank.dcn.davis.ca.us
[mailto:1st-mile-nm-bounces at crank.dcn.davis.ca.us] On Behalf Of Richard
Lowenberg
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 12:48 PM
To: 1st-mile-nm at crank.dcn.davis.ca.us
Subject: [1st-mile-nm] Jim Baller Posting

Last week, I posted a critique from Public Knowledge, of the Connect
Kentucky and Connected Nation broadband initiatives.   There's been some
back and forth exchange on this, online.   Jim Baller, a leading telecom.
lawyer, posted the following, yesterday.   He takes a most intelligent
position in his conclusion.   (There is a link to the Baller/Herbst Law
Firm web site on the 1st-Mile web site's Resources page.)
rl
-----

AMERICAs GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Many of you have asked me to comment on
 the controversy surrounding ConnectKentucky/
 Connected Nation. Here are my first impress-
 sions.

On this list and elsewhere, I have repeatedly
 praised CK/CN for their broadband mapping,
 consumer education, and demand aggregation
 activities. While some of their claims seemed
 exaggerated to me, I gave them the benefit of
 the doubt. At the same time, I often expressed
 concerns about their limited, incumbent-centric
 vision of Americas broadband needs and about
 their strong bias against public broadband
 initiatives.

In his lengthy article, Art Brodsky has now
 called many of CK/CNs claims into question.
 Brian Meffert has responded on behalf of
 CK/CN. Links to both pieces appear below.

I hope that Mr. Meffert will provide a more
 detailed response, that Mr. Brodsky will
 reply, and that the unnamed sources to
 which both refer will step forward and
 enlighten us about what really happened
 in Kentucky. In a matter of this import-
 ance, we need to know the facts, and we
 should not pre-judge them in either
 direction.

Wherever the truth may lie, however, my
 main concerns about the CK/CN will remain.
 In 2002, the US Department of Commerce
 issued a report entitled Understanding
 Broadband Demand in which it observed
 that It is important to note here that the
 current generation of broadband technol-
 ogies (cable and DSL) may prove woefully
 insufficient to carry many of the advanced
 applications driving future demand. Today's
 broadband will be tomorrow's traffic jam,
 and the need for speed will persist as new
 applications and services gobble up existing
 bandwidth. http://tinyurl.com/34e49y

Now, six years later, we can clearly see how
 prescient the Department of Commerce
 was. While CK/CN are stuck on single-
 digit DSL and cable modem speeds, the
 worlds leading nations are pushing rapidly
 toward speeds of 100 Mbps and 10 Gbps.
 Such speeds will completely tip the balance
 of innovation and competetiveness in their
 favor. Ironically, the bandwidth-rich appli-
 cations that these nations will foster would
 clog the arteries of the puny systems that
 CK/CNs initiatives would produce.

To remain a leader in the emerging global
 economy, the United States needs a much
 bigger vision than CK/CNs. We need to give
 all Americans, including those in the rural
 areas that CK/CN would serve, candid and
 unbiased information about the stakes
 involved and about the full range of options
 available to their communities. Moreover,
 we cannot afford to exclude any potentially
 viable initiative  public or private -- that
 can help the United States fulfill its vision.

To be sure, we need reliable map of broad-
 band availability  as well as speed, quality,
 and price. No one disputes this, and many
 tools are emerging to achieve this. We also
 need better consumer education, including
 accurate data about offerings of incumbent
 and competitive providers. At the very least,
 CK/CN deserve credit for highlighting these
 needs.

But even more, America needs a national
 broadband strategy that is worthy of this
 great Nation. This can happen only if all
 major stakeholders, including the incum-
 bents, candidly acknowledge that America
 faces a tremendous challenge, that time is
 short, and that the public and private
 sectors must work together, in a spirit of
 mutual respect, to meet this great chal-
 lenge. We cannot allow the CK/CN
 controversy to bog us down or divert us
 from developing such a strategy.

Jim Baller

------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110,  505-603-5200 cell

1st-Mile Institute
New Mexico Broadband Initiative
www.1st-mile.com
------------------------------------------------

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