Runaway Regulator - FCC Chairman Michael Powell violates conservative principles

This doesn't make sense for the reasons I stated earlier. Is everybody going to have a wire from every competitor coming into their home or business? The costs of maintining the copper plant are borne by your subscribers past and present as well as by the non-recurring and recurring charges that you collect from CLECs.

Well trained and qualified technicians will have opportunities in a competitive market. Lousy technicians will not. In my opinion, competition will end some of the welfare that the ILECs dole out currently to poorly performing employees.

Yea, that was the deal then. And if the feds want to keep playing with this deal then they're going to be watching a telcom industry that will get run over by third world countries.

Look at it this way. It's better for patients if doctors see them in a timely manner and if possible in some instances make house calls. However it's not profitable so the patients are just SOL.

No matter how you cut it there's only so much money out there that can be made. And there's only so much overhead you can cut.

I'd much rather amend the laws though if you're really up for it where so much is paid by the CLEC for the amount of copper and type of system used in the loop. That way the CLEC picks up a truer cost of what they're selling and doesn't wind up getting a deal where they can always undercut Bell's prices. If a CLEC thinks it can do well getting rural customers DSL then they can put in an order for it and Bell would write them up a bill for it and they'll get their customer what they want with Bell getting no profit off of it. If they get a customer who wants a phone and the cable isn't laid then they pay the bare costs to lay the cable. And if their customer bails then they have to eat the loss like Bell normally does. If their customer service is high quality and that's what sells it then their customer stays and everyone is happy because Bell doesn't invest in it, the CLEC gets the customer, and the customer gets the service they want.

Of course it puts a great deal of risk on the CLEC so I'm sure they'd rather not go that route. They'd much rather keep to the tried and true printing up of bills and interoffice switching and not even touch the last mile of death. Let Bell take the risk after all.

When you think about it, it takes more than a few months to recover the cost of a new installation with a normal residential customer.

'Well trained and qualified technicians will have opportunities in a competitive market. Lousy technicians will not. In my opinion, competition will end some of the welfare that the ILECs dole out currently to poorly performing employees.'

C'mon. Wasn't your uncle a technician. I guess he never told you how it is out here. On second thought he retired before the hammer came down and they started working us like slaves.

But to keep it simple the technician is always seen as a drag on the company whether he's productive or not. And an addendum to that is the technician always gets the shaft since he depends on every part of Bell.

But how do we judge the quality of the tech? Is it speed or is it in their ability to correct a problem? A fast tech can fix a line and get it back up easily. However he may do so at the expense of the next guy down the road. But he's made sure the company get's its money. The quality tech takes too long and despite doing a terrific job will be seen as a drag on productivity. So how do you judge?

As to the last mile....see my last post.

I don't know how to make this plainer. We pay you for loops. We pay you at rates that you agreed to in state commissions in exchange for your entry into LD. Now you're working the feds, pucs and state legislators to break the deal. YOU JUST GOT LD. You got the carrot. Now you want more carrot. My God man! So what are you going to say to my investors when you pull the plug on their investment? Sorry. How bout some Bell stock?

We made the deal back in 1996 when LD meant something. They didn't give it to us till 6 years later. We aksed for the carrot back when it was worhth soemthing. Now after 6 years when the carrot's worth a lot less now they give it to us.

Getting back to customer service. Wouldn't it be better just to drop CLECs and have the Feds set strict quality service guidelines with mandates for broadband depolyment else revocation of operating license?

You had to do your part first. You had to open your network. That it took you six years to do so is nobody's fault but your own.

Um, actually no it wouldn't be better. Federally mandated service quality would be a dubious solution at best. What about prices? What about the pressure we have exerted on you to improve your quality and to offer more products? You really think a strongly regulated monopoly is the best way to serve consumers?

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