[1st-mile-nm] Open Letter on Telecom Stimulus Spending

[Richard Lowenberg]

Clear and to the point, from Esme Vos.
rl
----

Open letter to President-elect Obama: please don?t send the stimulus money to
the telecom incumbents

www.muniwireless.com/2008/12/03/no-stimulus-package-money-to-incumbents/

December 3, 2008 at 9:22 PM by Esme Vos

According to a senior aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the federal
government?s economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband
Internet infrastructure and funds to upgrade and repair the national power grid
alongside more traditional funding for road and bridge repair.

Already incumbents like AT&T are lining up for this money. Please don?t give
it to them. That would be a huge mistake, even if conditions such as ?net
neutrality? are attached to the package. AT&T will just throw lawyers and
lobbyists at Washington to obstruct true net neutrality and line-sharing. The
FCC will spend too much time chasing after the incumbents.

Three things need to be done in the US to address the country?s lack of
broadband competition:

    * The existing copper network of AT&T has to be opened up to competitors.
Period.
    * Functional separation: AT&T and Verizon should be forced to separate out
their network business from their service business.
    * Give the stimulus money to local governments which will lay and own the
fiber networks, then they can open it up to AT&T and other service providers
who want to deliver service ? giving small local providers a huge price
discount so that AT&T cannot outspend them in marketing.

All three are being done in the EU because European regulators have found out
how difficult it is to enforce ?net neutrality? and line-sharing rules
against the incumbents. By the time a fine is imposed on the incumbent and the
lawsuit is concluded, five years have passed and the original plaintiff, a
small ISP, has long gone out of business.

The French regulator, ARCEP, was burned so many times by France Telecom?s
anti-competitve actions that ARCEP is now leading the charge in Europe for open
networks ? it is advocating true functional separation and fiber duct sharing.

Recently, ARCEP concluded that one of the critical conditions for rapid
deployment of fiber networks is a set of guidelines for operators, installers,
owners and users to share the fiber local loop. It?s not surprising that
France has gone from a broadband laggard to one where residents of main cities
can get 50 Mbps symmetrical broadband service for under 50 EUR per month.

New Yorkers can?t even get that. So how are Americans in rural areas ever
going to enjoy high-speed broadband at reasonable prices?


-- 
Richard Lowenberg
1st-Mile Institute
P.O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110;   505-603-5200 cell
rl at 1st-mile.com  www.1st-mile.com

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