Competitive quagmire

When the FCC issued its deadline for interconnection between carriers last spring, it implemented a timetable for the single most important change standing between the old world of the monopoly and the new world of competition. Yet here we are, months removed from the original FCC deadline, and the complaining, foot dragging and bickering between carriers over this issue continues.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if customers wish to switch service easily, their information must be switched with them. It's also obvious that when customers can switch their carriers easily, many will give it a try, providing all the motivation needed for the less visionary among the old-world carriers to pretend that the FCC mandate is more of a suggestion than an order.

What's not so easy to understand is how these carriers can be so meek. One often hears of the imposing marketing muscle and brand name recognition they wield, and how this enables them to take services that smaller carriers can't get off the ground and drive them into the homes and businesses of their customers.

If they are such marketing powerhouses, wouldn't adhering to the FCC interconnection mandate bring them bigger markets and more potential customers? Instead of bringing their powers to bear in a dynamic market rife with opportunity, they are like timid giants, protecting their fortunes by cowering in their caves.

The argument is made that these agreements involve the complex project of linking dissimilar legacy systems. That's true, but carriers already do this internally with customer information for marketing and network planning functions, so this is not an alien situation. The existence of internal carrier systems using CORBA and TMN technologies also shows that linking these systems can be done. What's needed now is the resolve to do so.

This week's meetings between Bell Atlantic and Nynex engineers to hash out these issues - now a necessity thanks to their merger - will further spotlight how, when properly motivated, interconnection can be accomplished. Hopefully, consumers and the FCC will take notice of this and finally start insisting that the big carriers allow competition to become a reality.