Call to action: ALTS speaks out on telecom act results

The competitive carrier sector is marking the third anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 by simultaneously celebrating its passage and lamenting the procrastination of incumbents.

"Three years after the act passed and not a single phone company has done what Congress has told it to do," said John Windhausen, the newly elected president of the Association for Local Telecommunications Services, during the organization's "Competitive State of the Union" event last week.

ALTS marked the telecom act's birthday by highlighting several figures it considers measurements of the legislation's success. For example, there are currently 146 facilities-based competitive local exchange carriers providing local service, compared with 110 in 1997 and only 13 before the act passed. Twenty of those new entities are publicly traded and boast a total market capitalization of $33 billion.

Despite those successes, ALTS figures indicate that competitive carriers have captured only $1.1 billion of telecom service revenues-about 5% of the total market. But the organization's hopes are high.

"We've set a goal of 25% market share for CLECs by the end of 2003," said Royce Holland, chairman and CEO of Allegiance Telecom and chairman of ALTS.

What ALTS and its supporters hope will spur that increase is improved implementation of the act by the FCC and better cooperation by incumbents, not a rewrite or overhaul of the legislation itself.

"The 1996 Telecom Act is a model piece of legislation," Holland said. "We don't think it needs changing, despite the whining of the antibodies to competition. Implementation and enforcement will get the job done."

ALTS Vice Chairman Robert Taylor, president and CEO of Focal Communications, said the FCC should handle enforcement of the Act like the Internal Revenue Service-a fellow federal organization notorious for the penalties it levies. "The IRS is the model for government enforcement," Taylor said. "From an enforcement standpoint, nobody fears the FCC."

Holland, an outspoken proponent of the competitive class of telecom service providers, went so far as to suggest that incumbents' failure to comply with the act's provisions should be met with stiff financial punishment. Entrenched players "talk a good game on competition, but they don't walk the walk," Holland said. "Perhaps we should have some monetary penalties that are very significant-something that would have an impact on quarterly earnings."

Telephony continues strengthening its editorial prowess with the appointment of Liane H. LaBarba to Associate Editor-Switching & Transmission.

LaBarba will cover core and edge networking, access technologies and transport mechanisms. She will write news, section and feature articles exploring service provider and vendor issues related to switching and transmission, as well as business strategies and industry trends.

LaBarba holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Before joining Telephony, LaBarba was editor-in-chief of Current Technology, a Texas-based magazine targeting the Dallas, Houston and Austin metro areas. The monthly publication primarily addressed telecom and computing technologies and companies in the telecom corridor. Previously, she held the editor-in-chief position of the Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Chicago editions of Computer Currents.

"We're excited Liane is joining Telephony," said Susan Biagi, Switching & Transmission Editor. "She has an extensive technology background, and her previous Texas coverage make her a natural fit for the switching and transmission beat. Liane's exceptional writing and reporting skills will be an asset to our publication."

LaBarba will work in a satellite office in Dallas and can be reached at (214) 363-5707, (214) 369-4160 (fax) or liane_labarba@intertec.com. Her mailing address is 5842 Waggoner, Dallas, Texas, 75230.