LETTERS

Until recently, I found your content to be factual and balanced in its approach. Yet recent coverage of Telseon has been error-prone and rumor-mongering.

The March 11th profile on Telseon was fair and accurate, resulting in a unique insider look at Telseon. The titles “Bad Luck Charm” and “Teflon CEO” were sensationalistic, personally demeaning and unrepresentative of my 27-year telecommunications career. I left ICG almost a year before it filed for bankruptcy protection and was dismissed from all class action litigation.

The March 18th Optical Networks Section inaccurately included Telseon among several companies “continuing to struggle with debt issues.”

The April 15th article “Tragic Times for Metro Ethernet” categorized Telseon as a pure-play Ethernet provider, ignoring the fact that Telseon launched a metro wavelength service in May 2000 that today accounts for more than 50% of our revenue. We are a metro optical network provider offering protocol-independent data transport services. Within the same article the number of POPs is factually incorrect. We have 125 POPs, not 25.

Now is when readers rely most on Telephony for reliable information to make smart business decisions. I am sure you can understand how repeated mistakes and unrepresentative coverage can be damaging to our credibility and yours.
John Kane, CEO
Telseon

There is a misconception in the article “Killer Apathy” (April 8, page 16). The misconception is based on Sen. Holling's figures that 85% of Americans have access to broadband. Sen. Hollings is relying on the FCC criteria that if even one subscriber in any ZIP code has access, then the entire ZIP code is considered served. This is not true.

We bring your attention to the geographical digital divide in many major markets. Plano is one of the most wired cities in the U.S. and for three years has been the No. 1 city for home-based businesses. However, due to inadequate wiring of one kind or another (e.g., too far from the CO for DSL, or in a cable area not wired for broadband) over two-thirds of our residents cannot get access to broadband.

Two-thirds of those responding to an online survey requested broadband service but were denied because of these problems. The service providers (Verizon and AT&T Broadband) are working on the problem but are not presently making the capital investment to expand broadband offerings. The need is there and the desire is there, but actual delivery is not available.

In short, the “apathy” is not on the part of subscribers, but rather the vendors who are holding off on capital investments until the FCC grants them exclusive access to their networks.
Jim Ryan, Chairman
Technology Commission
City of Plano, Texas

The author of “Timing is Everything” (March 11, page 21) cynically and inaccurately implies that the United States Telecom Association presented a lifetime achievement award to Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) as a reward for his work on the Tauzin-Dingell Internet Freedom and Broadband Relief Act.

The author goes on to mischaracterize USTA as representing one segment of the telecom industry. In fact, we represent more than 1400 incumbents and competitive carriers that provide local exchange, long-distance, wireless, Internet and cable services.

If the writer had bothered to call USTA, we would have offered a critical fact: The lifetime achievement award was scheduled before the Tauzin-Dingell vote took place and the outcome decided. Timing may be “everything” to your author, but hopefully in the future the basic facts will count for something, too.
Tom Amontree, Senior VP of Strategic Communications
United States Telecom Association

I just read your article, “Next-Gen Equipment Vendors Make Old Products New Again” (March 11, page 16) and was concerned with the incorrect Alcatel quote from Jim Guillet: “Lucent Technologies waffled on its softswitch strategy by dropping the Bell Labs version in favor of its Excel softswitch.”

For the record, Lucent Technologies has not “waffled on its softswitch strategy” and has not dropped its Lucent Softswitch from its circuit-to-packet product portfolio. We are continuing to support and sell our next-generation Lucent Softswitch [and] we have over 12 major global service providers trialing the solution.
JC Murphy, VP and General Manager
Lucent Softswitch
Lucent Technologies