herrickd@uunet.uu.net (CONTR HERRICK, DAN) (02/09/91)
> [Moderator's Note: Jane Fraser, a regular correspondent to TELECOM > Digest from Ohio State has passed along this special report of a > symposium held last week. I thought you would enjoy reading it, > although it is too long for a regular issue of the Digest. PAT] Jane's 300 line report is informative and helpful. Reading it led me to an idea that should have come sooner! "Full competition in telecommunications" requires more than one Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) competing to provide me with dial tone. There are two very expensive items in the physical plant of a LEC, the switch or Central Office and all those copper wires going to everybody's phones. Every community of any size in the United States now has a second company with a switch for providing public phone service - the non-wireline cellular phone provider. His cellular system includes a network of cell transceivers connected together with copper wires and optic fibers and radio/microwave connections. (They even buy some of those connections from the wireline providers, I'm sure.) What prevents a non-wireline cellular provider from starting to offer POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service? There has to be one out there with capacity to spare owned by a curmudgeon spoiling for a good competitive fight. It is time we really tore down the telephone monopoly, not using the guns of a government regulator, but using the profit seeking ambitions of an alternative provider. Do you think local telephone service costs too much? Rent some capacity from the local cellular provider and take some business away from your monopoly LEC. dan herrick herrickd@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com
amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) (02/12/91)
Dan Herrick writes: > Do you think local telephone service costs too much? Rent some capacity > from the local cellular provider and take some business away from your > monopoly LEC. Actually, I have been debating doing just that. If you factor in value-added services, Cell One is almost cheaper than C&P, even with airtime charges. Since there's a cell site a block away from my apartment, it's even practical for non-mobile use, and I get: - free voice mail - a local calling area that includes all of the DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas (this can be *very* handy) - prompt, helpful customer service - often, faster call completion - fewer service interruptions And, best of all, my cellular phone number wasn't previously owned by a tortilla manufacturer :). The next time C&P screws up, I'll probably try it, at least for a while... Amanda Walker amanda@visix.com Visix Software Inc. ...!uunet!visix!amanda