A waiting game

Fifteen months and counting. That's how long it's been since the Telecom Reform Act was passed and how long we've been waiting to see "real" competition in the local market.

So far, most debate has focused on access charges and, to a lesser degree, universal service. Unbundled local loops are still just a provision in a bunch of paragraphs within a huge document. It's in those local loops that all the power lies. A service provider could have a monstrous core ATM backbone, state-of-the-art Sonet ring configured fiber optics and gadgets galore.

But without that last mile to customers, it all means nothing. Digital subscriber line vendors and proponents are fond of calling the copper wiring to homes and businesses "gold." It is gold, but in a different sense.

Sure, DSL can rev up the speed of copper to mind-boggling megabit speeds. The real gold, however, is much simpler than adding equipment; it is simply in the ownership of that last mile.

It's a lot like the Port Authority Transit in New York and New Jersey. They built the bridges and tunnels and now hold the right of way to the last leg of any journey into Manhattan, just as the incumbent telcos built the copper out to customers and now control that access. Of course, enterprising individuals have sprung up to circumvent the Port Authority. New York Waterway, for instance, runs ferry services to the Island, just like CLECs such as MFS and TCG get around the RHCs by running their own copper or fiber connections to local customers. Still, the alternate routes are few in both cases.

You can't really blame the incumbent telcos for digging in and protecting their investment. When they finally hand over local loops, they hand over potential revenue, especially when the companies that want to grab those loops have the marketing and business prowess of the likes of AT&T, MCI and Sprint.

The telcos want to make sure they can make up the losses by adding long-distance, but they don't want to give up local loops first. The IXCs want local loops but don't want to let the telcos into long-distance first.

Stalemate.

Now it's up to both state and federal regulators to get past the stall tactics, lawsuits, politics and lobbying and make the Telecom Act real. Fifteen months is a long time for so little real competition.