Phone Rates Could Rise on Bush Administration Decision

[CShine]

The Bush administration's decision not to challenge a court ruling on wholesale telephone rates could hamper competition and make phone calls more expensive. It could even force some companies to quit the residential market. But when those rate increases will come - or if they'll really come at all - is open to debate. The telecommunications industry is already so roiled by technology-induced tumult - including the proliferation of cell phones and Voice over Internet - that some analysts think regulation is hardly needed to keep prices down.

When a federal appeals court in March threw out rules that required regional Bells to sell competitors access to their networks at a discount, MCI, AT&T Corp. and state regulators cried foul. A day after the White House declined to join the legal fray, the Supreme Court was petitioned to stay the lower court ruling by AT&T, MCI, an association of state regulators, plus California and Michigan.

David Isenberg, an independent telecoms analyst, called the Bush administration's inaction, which is widely seen as favoring the regional Bells, "kind of like a lobster dinner for a dying patient."

The appeals court decision "is fundamentally anticompetitive, but the fundamental basis of competition has changed," he said.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBPII7SBVD.html

[jus_the_facts]

1. The customer pays for ALL judgements made against the industry.....

.....we the customer pay for every fine and/or costs they incur from the gov't...says so in a round about way...on your bill...what gets me too is the fact they CHARGE you to NOT put your number in the phonebook...you ask 'em to not use extra ink and paper...which saves 'em money...yet you have to pay $5.00 a month like it's a service...sounds like they'll be able to extort...extort...extort all the more now...and less regulation too. :grr:

[LosinIt]

2. I heard something about this and the effect on rural areas

That Regional Bells will no longer be required to have service in areas where is isn't very profitable due to the extensive acreage and few inhabitants. The story was about extreme Northern New York which is sparsely populated. We have a new religion in this country, the worship of the almighty dollar.

[pauliedangerously]

3. In defense of the Bells, a personal experience

The wholesale rates are set by states, and in many cases they are BELOW cost which gives Competitive Local Exchange Carriers, or CLECs, an unfair advantage. Moreover, the CLECs are free to sell their services at any price they want to, whereas the Bells are bound by tariffs.

As an upbeat bright fellow who happily rolled a truck and climbed poles for several years and who now works in the largest Central Office in the Midwest, I would just like to see the playing field leveled.

Bell employees are bound by a strict code of conduct prohibiting any kind of derogatory statements regarding competitors, whereas the competitors have no such rules. They are free to bash us at will. You will never see a Bell commercial "dissing the other guys."

The "competitors" can pick and choose their customers, and they have skimmed a lot of the lucrative business lines, which are roughly twice the rate of residential lines, again, set by tariff. The higher margin business lines helped balance out the cost of providing service to rural areas with lower population densities. That is why the federal government structured it this way so many decades ago when it was a regulated monopoly.

True, competition has forced the Bells to provide better customer service, and as someone who worked in the customer service sector for nearly a decade, I welcome this change. But don't be fooled by this mumbojumbo about competition being good for the average citizen; it's the same sham as Bush's tax cuts.

The real winners are the big corporations who enjoy far greater savings than the measly few bucks a month saved by the masses. They are saving MILLIONS. The losers are the people who live in rural areas and older poor neighborhoods with decades old cable plant because the Bells have been forced to cut costs and can only maintain it instead of replace it. The Bell system is a microcosm of the federal government, and they are both being bled to death by the same people for the same reasons.

One more thing: Most all of the competitors are non-union and their employees are compensated far less. They are the Wal-Mart employees of the telecom industry. I know, because I used to be one. I fell for the anti-union rhetoric and thought I was doing very well for myself until a former co-worker called me up one day and told me about the pay, the benefits, and the paid training he was receiving. The illusion was dispelled.

Admittedly, a lot of Bell employees are as pleasant as many of the people at the DMV or the Post Office, and many of them have been suckered by the corporate mass media and AM radio bullies (the number of anti-union union members at my company is appalling). Despite this, I am grateful for the tremendous learning experience I have had thus far. I have expanded my personal library way beyond its liberal arts roots into the history of science and technology, electrical engineering, renewable energy, physics, and all sorts of cool stuff that I never would have thought to pursue had it not been for my experiences with the Bell system.

I probably only have a year or two left before I'm layed off, and then I'll either go work for another Wal-Mart telco or just make yet ANOTHER career change. Regardless, I have no worries; I lived in poverty throughout my twenties and I have enough knowledge, skills and experience to journey on with confidence and a smile.

[kysrsoze]

6. Agreed. Being forced to sell below cost is bad for everyone b/c

it creates price wars and causes the Bells to heavily discount their own services to the public to keep up with the CLECs who buy below costs and undercut them.

In addition, the CLECs don't contribute anything to the network maintenance and investment costs, instead it is all put on the Bells. They are also forced to develop and maintain (at their own expense) interfaces to allow the CLECs to use the new technologies they develop - again, paying below actual cost for this technology.

Bottom line is that the experiment didn't work for anyone. AT&T hasn't been able to maintain their cost structure and ended up in big financial trouble, being forced to sell off all their infrastructure (like Cellular, Cable) and lease it all back from the Bells at artificially low rates. MCI did even worse, though they ended up better off than they should have by cheating the Bells and other carriers like AT&T.

The only sensible solution is for the Bells and CLECs to negotiate wholesale rates so there is indeed a level playing field.

[pauliedangerously]

9. Absolutely correct....

"Godfathah, you understand everything."

[snooper2]

8. I worked for Worldcom for 5 years..

And now a CLEC going on 6. I disagree with most everyone you just posted. Screw the Bells. They are the worst people to do business with in the world. Only one company, Nynex, may be worst. I would trust Singapore Telecom to deliver a E1 properly than ever get Bell to process an order for a DS3 loop without 30 escalations.

Oh yeah, and the government didn't help us build our network.

[pauliedangerously]

11. Hyperbole

This is an example of how CLECs bash the Bells...read my first post to this string. I wouldn't stoop to that level and bash a competitor, even on a discussion board. Maintaining the most complex network on the planet is no small undertaking.

I have worked through hundreds of cases of trouble with CLECs and most of my experiences have been positive. Your frustrations stem from being an outsider and not understanding the processes. It isn't enough to be technically proficient, but also patient, tactful, and courteous.

[snooper2]

14. Oh here we go...

Now it's the poor Bells sob story. Bell can't keep up with the advances in Technology and since 1996 have done everything the can to hamper access to the last mile. It's a shame LMDS isn't at a point yet where it is feasible and cost effective.

I work for a NLEC now. National Local Exchange Carrier. Yeah, I know, it's an oxymoron, but only the future will tell what happens the next 5-10 years. I do know Bell can't provide a customer a Frame T1 in Tampa, Gigabit Ethernet connection in New York, and a PPP link in San Jose fully meshed over a MPLS network on one bill.

[pauliedangerously]

19. Yeah.....

...but they could if the four RBOCs were to merge.

[struggle4progress]

4. kick

:kick:

[BiggJawn]

5. Would not take much of a rate increase for me to ditch landline service..

I already pay $40 a month for local dialtone and long distance. My pre-paid cellie is 25 cents a minute. Except for my dial-up (free ISP through my job), I don't make 2 hour's worth of phone calls a month. I have wireless internet available for $59 a month....$40 now, vs. $59 now, vs. ??? a month in the future for POTS?

CenturyTel could be losing a customer soon....

[kysrsoze]

7. Wow, you're getting ripped off.

DSL is $29 a month or less if it's available. Dial-up is $10 a month through the Bells. Local with LD (depending on the plan) can be as low as $30 a month. Sounds like Century sucks.

[pauliedangerously]

12. ILEC

Century, and I'm not sure where it is, but I know it's an ILEC, probably serves a small outstate region and lacks the economies of scale that the RBOCs do, and cannot afford to sell their services at the rates you described.

With improved government regulations and subsidies, landlne rates could be standardized across the nation. They may have been once, but I'm not old enough to know. Maybe I'll try to reasearch that.

[BiggJawn]

16. How so?

My ISP is FREE, so $10 from Baby Bell is a rip-off, IMO. and I can't do any better for POTS. CenturyTel is the ONLY ganme in town, so it's "bend over and spread your cheeks"

No DSL out here in the Boonies, either.

[snooper2]

10. Try Vonage..or Comcast

Comcast gives you two numbers with there VoIP service.

[pauliedangerously]

13. THEIR VoIP service.

Your comments and English skills betray you.

[snooper2]

17. I'm just glad I never went to work for a bell...regardless of my English

I would get my standard Union raise and be stuck swapping FXS cards for 40 years, and have a guy next to me working his guaranteed job of swapping out failed FXO cards.

Fun fun...
Ring - Ring - Ring, DLLSTXFB Farmers Branch Pop, can I help you. Yeah, can you go over to panel 110.01.09.08 and put a loop in jacks 11 and 12? Tech: Oh no, I can't touch that. My job is to swap FXS cards only. You'll have to call Larry, but he's on vacation, so I don't know what to tell you. Can I escalate? Tech: after 3 business days, by, time for lunch...

[pauliedangerously]

18. You get out of it what you put into it...

I agree with you about a lot of the single-mindedness you just described, but you are describing old school Bellheads. What you described is what you find in a turfed office, which is what I work in, and yeah, I've swapped out a lot of FXS cards, as well as FXOs, 4TOs, DSODPs, 4 E & Ms, Ubrites, etc, etc...but also, because I've demonstrated to management that I want to learn, I've taken on the 5ESS, the DMS100, and some of the bigger data pipes as well, including T1, T3, and I'm hoping to start playing around with SONET rings soon.

The trick is not to let all of the older schmucks bring you down. There is an unlimited number of resources available to people who just go after them, and I can guarantee you that I'm never going to be stuck in one place for 40 years, because I don't want to be.

There's a lot of new blood where I work...some of them, unfortunately are falling into the pattern you described; it's a job that requires people with a sense of personal honor, because management can't be everywhere at once to make sure people aren't sitting around with their fingers up their asses.

Anyhow, I'm sorry that you have had so many bad experiences with some of my fellow "not-so-honorable" union brothers, but the Bell system isn't going away anytime soon, and I'm doing my best to shake things up where I work. I've learned the bureaucracy, and if it makes you feel better, I've gotten a couple of those lazy bastards in the hot seat; one is facing possible termination and one of them was more or less forced into retirement last Summer. The union doesn't like that too much, but there isn't a damn thing they can do about it because my work is top notch and I'll never need to be defended.

[BiggJawn]

15. Not available here.

Our local cable company is Incest...Uh, I mean, Insight Cable. They offer cable modem internet, but it's $40 a month, and they CLAIM you can have internet w/o piped-in sewage, but I seriously doubt that, so figure another $39 a month for Video Drek.

The Wireless IP is through the power company in the next county (REMC) and 2 years ago it was $89 a month, now it's $59. Price keeps coming down, I'm getting on it, and buh-BYE landline!