mtroup
Marty
Premium
join:2007-06-28
Hermitage, AR
1 edit | [Bus. Ops] Battling the telco.. when you're right.. and still lo
So as a few of you know that i've been talking to via PM and even a few posts on here I have been trying to venture into providing DSL service in my area to make my life a little bit easier and offer higher speeds.
Well about 2 months ago I started calling the telephone company (note: they are a privately owned ILEC, and non Bell, etc). I wanted to come to an agreement with them and have a contract (their tariffs allowed for this) stating a fixed or even variable price for purchasing dry loops (ex. Local Private Line (per their tariff)). I was told they just couldn't do that and that I just needed to order the dry loops as I have done in the past (They've sold them to me before for my own backhaul purposes). That was the week before last.
So move forward to last week. I called in on Monday to order 2 loops and they never called me back, I called back the next day and they "were working on it". Then, the next day I received a call back and they stated they had reviewed their tariffs and since I was planning on providing dsl service over the line they considered it reselling of service which is prohibited in their tariff.
So I then spent the next two days researching their tariffs and found that they specifically defined what "service" and "facilities" are.. I was requesting to order a "Local Private Line" which was defined as a non-switched line located wholly within an exchange for the customer's own use to data or signaling between points on that line. It has nothing to do with service as they define service as "local telephone service".
So I called in the PSC on Friday morning. They told me they would investigate it and get back to me. So now we're at this week. Monday morning I received a call from the PSC and they said they spoke with their lawyers and the ILEC's office and they said the ILEC determined it to be resale of service and they didn't have to offer it to me, and that my only recourse would be to become a CLEC and file an Interconnection Agreement with the ILEC.
When I asked about more information I was forwarded to another PSC empoyee who took a bit more interest in my problem, and over the past 3 days she researched it and talked with PSC engineers, the ILEC, and lawyers as well. Well, the new finding was that since I was not reselling a "dry loop" to any customer and that I would be generating the service over the pair with my own equipment at both ends that I indeed was NOT reselling service and since it was in the ILEC's tariffs, they had to provide me with the lines, and they had called and told the ILEC this as well. So that's great right?
I called into the ILEC office a few minutes ago and requested to order the lines and was told that they had recently (note: TODAY) determined that it was no longer "economically feasible" to offer the "Local Private Line" tariff and they had re-filed their tariffs today and would no longer be offering such services.
So the moral of the story is.. the telco found a legal way to effectively cripple competition and it is truly the consumer who will suffer. However, I am not completely giving up and that's why I come here for help and support (as usual). I am now wanting to consider the possibility of becoming a CLEC and would like to hear all the input from anyone who has experience in the ISP turned CLEC area. I have read the past posts and was just wondering if there are any more recent scenarios.
I have talked with the PSC and have been told that as a CLEC I wouldn't have to provide dial services if I did not want to, so that was good news, but I was also told that the local ILEC probably has a "Rural Exemption" that might hurt me as well. I am just trying to make a educated move at this point, as I don't want anything that will burden me financially or mentally with paperwork overload, etc. I am also opposed to spending money and more time fighting a losing battle and that just might be what I have got into.
Thanks again.
-Marty |
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dgilbert
Good Bye My Friend
Premium,MVM
join:2002-06-15
none
clubs:
| Re: [Bus. Ops] Battling the telco.. when you're right.. and stil
my question would be could you honestly ever get enough customers to make the fight worth it? that is what they count on, you not being able to fight them. sadly local telcos have a lot more freedom to do how they want than Bell companies do. they still have rules, btu the rural exemptions give them more protection.
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Lack of Preparation on YOUR Part does NOT Constitute an Emergency on Mine! |
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screavic
Premium
join:2006-08-11
Paron, AR
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
·Alltel Axess
| reply to mtroup
This sounds about right, you can't fight the telco companies, someway they find a loophole and always win. I'm in the same state as you and have this problem.  I have given up on trying to help this state with it's broadband problems, my voice isn't listened to.
They established connect-arkansas.org as a project to help deployment but as you see on the front page it hasn't been updated since 2007 and the other news below is irrelevant almost to the problem at hand. On a good note, they did get broadband maps for our state but I find they are far from being correct in some places. I understand this would be difficult to do but I would have taken "worst case scenario" when making these maps. |
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Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA | reply to mtroup
Should have kept them thinking it was "alarm" circuits... |
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screavic
Premium
join:2006-08-11
Paron, AR
1 edit | hmmm... you might have an idea there  say it's a remote video survelience system and install a webcam. |
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