I Want My SLoA!

Dec 7, 2001 12:00 PM, Peter Bernstein

So here is the deal. Since I do not wish to move, I want Sprint to buy the Bergen County, N.J., operating assets of Verizon. I want this millennium's access services before I have to contend with Y3K issues. And yes, I plan to live that long, if for no other reason than to spite Verizon.

Just to recap for the casual reader of this column who may have missed parts of my continuing Verizon saga: I have lived in my current house for 17 years. I have had poor telephone services for, you guessed it, 17 years.  I know what the problem is. Even though I live at the end of a cul de sac, for mysterious reasons, two houses down from me the aerial plant changes to underground. My pedestal is in former wetlands. It is 35 years old. It has been submerged on various occasions. Periodically I get switched to unused pairs because of mice damage. Verizon has acknowledged the problem many times over the years. The CEO's office is aware of my problem. At their behest, one year ago, their top regional tech confirmed my diagnosis. 

They supposedly put me on a repair schedule. Nobody has owned up to actually keeping this schedule, but I have been assured that it exists and I am on it.  When the electric company upgraded my plant, and the cable company took the opportunity of collocating new cable in place of their dilapidated facilities by sharing the new trench, I asked Verizon why they could not do the same thing while the street was open. The answer was that unless you are on the schedule for that day, or there is an act of God, you must wait your turn. Of course, they cannot tell me if my turn will come in this century. This is why I plan to live long enough to see them come.

What does this have to do with Sprint?  Everything. Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division (Sprint LTD) announced on November 5th that beginning January 2003 it will start changing over its 8.3 million local lines from circuit-switched to packet. Nortel was chosen as the vendor to convert the Class 4 and Class 5 serving offices in Sprint local areas from circuit to subscriber line over ATM (SloA) combining three separate "overlay" networks into a single converged network. Phase I will end in July of 2006 when 3.6 million of the 8.3 million lines will have been converted.

This is great news for Sprint, Nortel and the Sprint subscribers. It is also great news for the industry. We finally have an operating company willing to put its money where the industry's collective mouth has been for several years, but during which time nobody was willing to get serious. The business case for "convergence" is going to have one massive test bed. 

This is also great news because a demanding customer has finally been convinced enough by the business case for deploying an all digital, broadband packet-based infrastructure -- access network as well as core -- that it is willing to bet its future that the promised operating savings and the existence of a future ready service platform can generate an impressive and timely ROI. It means that the financial and operations people have bought in on the desirability of doing this.  "Who woulda thunk it?"

For you technology zealots, get over the fact that those magical words "fiber optics" and "Gig Ethernet" are nowhere to be found in this announcement.  Speaking as a potential customer of such technology and not as an industry maven, “I don't care about what technology is or is not the technology du jour, I just want broadband digital access and a choice of services!” Speaking as an industry maven, “I don't care about what technology is or is not the technology du jour, customers just want broadband digital access and a choice of services!”

Memo to Verizon:  “I Want My SLoA!”  

P.S. I am willing to live long enough to see you offer it, not because I would buy it from you. It is a matter of professional interest and principle. My cable modem service is on its way as we speak. 

P.S.S. Ivan, have somebody fix my damn pedestal! Tell them it is your second home.

Memo to other ILECS: “Get with the program!” Sprint knows from whence they speak. They can cut costs and make money. They will be able to do a lot more with a lot less. This should be a matter of patriotism. America's suppliers and your customers need you to step up to the plate.

Peter Bernstein is President, Infonautics Consulting, Inc. He can be reached at pabernstein@worldnet.att.net.

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