Tom Walton sez:
The most troubling thing to me about the ION plan is that it seems to revolve around the idea of using LEC local loops to deliver service to home customers. The LECs are not going to be enthusiastic about providing an unbundled loop to facilitate being cut out of their long-distance termination fees. This could be a very slow roll for Sprint.
Count on SPRINT being their own CLEC; why would they give away the gravy?
This problem will not become acute until they begin deploying residential service, as many/most business customers (the initial targets) will be "on-net" with CLECS who are already interconnected with Sprint. It might be that Sprint is hoping/praying for regulatory/statutory intercession before they try to penetrate the residential market en masse.
True. Sprint's legal muscle [irony; it's MCI that was oft-called "The law firm with the antenna on top" not Sprint] may help pry entry into COLO space in/near CO's, but that is far from a universal solution. What about SLC[tm-Lucent]'ed lines, real copper loops too long to be viable [know of several 40Kft ISDN loops], offices with no COLO space, etc. (And even when successful, that means a COLO cage in every CO in the country....) And *will* businesses want to go to all-metered calling? Outside of NYC, Chicago, Gnu Joisy, Califunny {and any I don't know of..}, most US business POTS is flat rate or per-call, not per minute|bit. So they'll split the difference; using Least Cost Routing to try and guess which way is better. Buy PBX stock, and count on the ILEC's fighting this tooth and nail, down to the last T-75 staple and pole spike.
I love the telecommunications business...
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