IP: more on dsl and rbocs

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Robert Lee <robertslee () comcast net>
Reply-To: robertslee () comcast net
Date: Sun, 07 Apr 2002 17:58:21 -0400
To: "David J. Farber" <dave () farber net>, "David J. Farber"
<farber () cis upenn edu>

Reply to Bob Cringley:

 

Bob, the dynamics of the Verizon/Northpoint deal are even more astounding
than that.  Northpoint contends that Verizon induced Northpoint to invest
their last $150 million in infrastructure prior to Verizon¹s already
negotiated acquisition of Northpoint and then backed out, just to insure a
quick demise of Northpoint.  Further, Verizon asked the FCC to count the
money that it cost Verizon to bankrupt Northpoint as an expenditure against
a 500 million commitment that Verizon had made to the FCC to foster
competition!

 

The baby bells are like IBM in the early days of the PC.  The least powerful
PCs for the most money were the IBM's.  The Z80's 8 bit chips are still
used. Wonder how many Intel 8088's are being sold?  I remember being able to
power 3 terminals and one console on Digital Research¹s MP/M (multi-user
CP/M) before the proliferation of single-user DOS and the PC.

 

Monopolies have an "island mentality".  In the 50's when rich Americans
visited poor islands in paradise they were always advised by the few white
resident émigrés not to "ruin" the economy (don¹t tip too much).   This
parsimony is structural; it is in the nature of a monopoly.  Michael Powell,
the oldest sophomore in the country, who tragically seems to run one of our
most important federal agencies, believes that it is not monopolies that we
should fear but monopolistic behavior.  Just who acts monopolistically seems
to elude him.  It is the old joke about scorpions.  Why do scorpions sting?
 Because they are scorpions and that¹s what scorpions do.  Monopolies raise
prices and restrict innovation.  That is what monopolies do.  If you are a
monopoly, to do otherwise would be self-destructive. 

 

With regard to Verizon's effort to stall DSL, this is my story:

 

I have a house in Maryland.  I have terrible twisted pair. Each time it
rains my dialup will connect in the low teens but the throughput goes down
below 5K and, due to the protocol, disconnects once every minute or two. 
Verizon insists they are fulfilling their responsibility to supply static
free voice me.  No one in customer service knows the difference between
connect speed and throughput.  So long as I connect at 9.6K or higher, they
have no obligation.  That it disconnects every two minutes is not even a
concept they understand.  None of the hires in customer service has a
computer, a modem, an ISP account, or knows what a browser is (these are the
people Michael Powell is convinced will have all of this if they can just
get DSL).  In Maryland the phone company gives you an interface on an
exterior wall in which using an RJ11 jack they connect the buried cable to
your house cable.  When you report trouble they have you go outside and test
the line for them!  I have tested the line from the interface to the street
and found the problem is the buried cable.  After a rain I have less than 5K
effective BAUD.

 

Verizon wants to sell me a T1. I refuse to buy.  They insist they cannot
offer me DSL because I am 18,000 feet away from the CO.  A friendly Verizon
tech showed me a Remote Terminal around the corner from my house.  He said
they are busy putting in RT's everywhere in hopes that the FCC will keep
CLECs off any loop with fiber.  He says they could offer me DSL right now
for just the cost of a DSLAM but with limited resources it is more important
to them to keep out CLECs than to offer DSL. 

 

A friend of mine in Philadelphia lost his dedicated DSL for two weeks. For
two weeks Verizon blamed it on Covad. Finally it was restored.  After
thorough interrogation he learned precisely what this technician in Maryland
verified for me, which is:  The people who provision lines are in the
residential department.  The people who sell DSL are in the business and
information department.   The people in the residential department keep no
records of what pairs they use.  They simply look for spares by testing the
lines.  The residential department has no digital testers.  They use dial
tone testers to test the lines even though many of them may have no dial
tone and are dedicated DSL.  When they find a pair with no dial tone they
take them.  The technician told me he has had a requisition for a digital
tester in for two years.

 

My town, Easton, has become so frustrated with Verizon that it has announced
plans to start building its own telco infrastructure.  Verizon is engaged in
a publicity campaign to prevent them.  Where before the Baby Bells were
saying that if a CLEC wants to come to the party, it must bring its own
infrastructure, they are now trying to prevent cities such as Kutztown, PA,
Easton, MD, and Chicago, IL from doing just that.  They say it will
dis-incent them to invest and it will be bad for standards.
Robert Lee

land 610-642-9705

cell  610-724-1288

fax   610-642-0675

 


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