Fiber, fiber everywhere: but who will pay for the fat IP pipe?

America's Network, May 1, 2004 by Art Brothers

Southern Bell Communications (SBC) has bought out what? Two or three other Bell operating companies? Today it looks like a reincarnation of Ma Bell. In a recent proceeding where a small LEC wanted to establish a new switching office for about a hundred souls in northern Nevada, SBC weighed in at a PUC hearing. The company, objecting to interconnecting with the LEC, said:

"If (the LEC) plans to increase call volumes ... (for the 100 customers) in the Reese River / Antelope Valley area,.., SBC Nevada could be required to add significantly more switching and transport capacity to meet this increased usage.

... SBC Nevada is concerned about the financial risk that we would incur under this scenario.

... It's also important to note that over the short term, while SBC Nevada would be building out facilities to serve this additional traffic, customers who rely on the existing circuits to carry toll calls could experience blocking.

... Further, if SBC Nevada's spare capacity in the path is exhausted by the increase in traffic, other traditional customer's needs along this route may go unmet or be delayed because of the lack of available capacity."

Seems SBC has an OC48 on fiber from Reno to the nearby county seat (Battle Mt.) where the LEC would connect to the network. That's 32,248 circuits.

PRESIDENT BUSH

Last month I quoted President Bush's comments about the need to have (a fiber?) broadband system operational in the U.S. by the year 2007. The issue is how to pay for it? So far, one faction says charge by the amount of content per use. A kind of tax. Yet, Mr. Bush also said:

"Let me say one thing about broadband--we don't need to tax access to broadband. The Congress must not tax access to broadband technology if we want to spread it around."

This suggests discussion of proposals to raise the dough by a one-time tax on any chip built or imported into America. If a chip has the capability of talking to another chip, some measure of a tax would be assessed. That money would bankroll a national fiber network. It's going to have to come by Congressional action.

Congress seldom acts without someone laying it out on the table. Again--what are you doing about this? And if our honorable editor doesn't delete this invite, you can be sure I would love to hear work groups on this issue.

VOIP

A few years ago we commenced tests with Multimate VoiP modems connected to one of our switches and accessed by another tied to the net with a phone. Works well. Make or receive calls through the Net. Daughter in Florida went with Vonage when they first started. Her husband talks to Canada--a lot.

WIRELESS INTERNET

For the past year we've been teaching ourselves wireless internet. This came about after seeing the Motorola Canopy product at Supercomm. Established a separate company . Interesting learning curve. Caution--it is not a cakewalk. A recent month saw us not billing--as many customers suffered goofy service. With consultants we cleaned the crud out of the system. Every millisecond has to be nailed. What is each doing and why? A tough start-up curve but the subs are happy! Now we're looking to see how VoIP is workable in our yard.

What about VoIP? Folks will pay for Internet. Voice will be a non regulated add-on. It will turn our industry sideways. Cornering a fat IP pipe is essential. Next is ethernet on fiber to the home. At 73, I resent being old as all this fun stuff is knocking at the door. We are having fun--I think.

TAQUA

Purchase of Taqua by Tekelec. They will provide the dough to move additional goodies along. The long promised IP card will be sent in June. We can't wait.