CLECs, chuckles and customers

Don't save CLECs

Good article on CLEC and DSL (“DSL's crazy ride continues,” Jan. 22, page 22).

Being a 30-year plus employee of Sprint Local, I am not sorry to see some CLECs file for Chapter 11. I even enjoy hearing it. I feel that since 1996 everyone has taken advantage of a network built by the locals and seen by CLECs as a “get rich quick” scheme by offering services and features that were not available on the regulated side. It also concerns me that as a local company we are attempting to roll out the same services and features that drove them into Chapter 11.
Everett E. Larrabee
Sprint Local
Mansfield, Ohio

CLECs can't compete

Your article “DSL's crazy ride continues” (Jan. 22, page 22) was right on.

I think we are going to see more technology-driven applications deployed in ILEC co-location cages that will provide types of temporary voice and data solutions while being dependent on ILECs to deliver their services. The problem is when ILECs provide the same or similar services the competitor does, who do you think is going to get the conditioned lines necessary to provide these services first?

I realize that cost is a factor, but so many times in the past I have seen customers go with first-available service vs. cost. The turnaround time to provide customers with new or existing service cut-overs to CLECs is terrible at best. And there begins the demise of all non-facilities-based providers.
C.R. Hough II
KMC Telecom
Spartanburg, S.C.

Thanks for the chuckle

I just have to tell you thanks for the chuckle this morning! “Altered States” (Feb. 12, page 11) was intriguing, entertaining and amusing — helicopter ride, indeed. Trust me, I know about the safety concerns — a deep-rooted tradition in the phone companies. I myself had 23 years of service with the phone company when I left in 1997. Now I wish I had taken a copy of the company practice on how to remove a staple safely — I don't think anyone believes it existed!
Carol Brown
Compaq Computer Corp.
Omaha

Customers first

Amen! Customers and their perspectives can get lost in the shuffle (Viewpoint, Feb. 19, page 42). Many years ago I worked as an outside plant engineer in a rural area. I suggested that in the spring we put a one-liner in the monthly phone bill inserts asking people who were building new homes, especially in remote areas, to contact the phone company at about the same time they were contacting other utilities. I was told that if the customer had questions they could call the local business office. But that's just the point — if customers don't realize they have questions, they're not going to call. Thanks for your customer-oriented perspective.
Beverley Seader
via e-mail

Endangered species

In response to your editorial, “Save the CLECs” (Feb. 26, page 38), CLECs are not the only endangered species of the “access” issue. There are other losers in the “data relief” legislation you mentioned, especially when one considers the current state of access to cable subscribers: The list of losers in the Broadband Wars includes DLECs, ISPs, states, communities and ultimately residential and business subscribers.

Cable companies and RBOCs want large, national companies to compete using competitive high-speed Internet technologies, while the stakeholders want competitive service providers using competing HSI technologies to offer a broad range of broadband services tailored for regional and local subscribers.
Steve Heins
NorthNet
Oshkosh, Wis.