Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!indri!aplcen!ginosko!uunet!wugate!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: McConnaughey@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Sprint's Universal Points of Presence Message-ID: Date: 23 Jul 89 19:52:34 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 78 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 252, message 2 of 7 Dear John, Regarding your assertion that OCCs selectively serve metropolitan areas, I can provide some information to clarify some of your misconceptions about US Sprint on this topic. 1) US Sprint has points of presence in every LATA in the CONUS (and also Hawaii) connected to Sprint's fiber optic transmission network. 2) US Sprint has points of presence (POPs) and provides service in most of the major independent Telco operating territories (GTE, United,...) 3) Except for GTE, independent Telcos are not required to offer their subscribers "equal access". (GTE signed an agreement with the DOJ to provide what was essentially equal access in their territories when they purchased Southern Pacific Communications Corp., Sprint's precursor , from the S.P. railroad.) 4) In particular, in California Sprint has at least one POP in every PacBell LATA and provides FGD service wherever PacBell has offered equal access. 5) I called PacBell information (411) and NPA 555-1212 to get area codes and exchange prefixes for the rural areas you mentioned. I then called US Sprint Customer service at (1)800-877-4646 and inquired about Sprint service in Weed, Baker, and Los Banos. The results are as follows: Location NPA NXX Equal Access Date Sprint FGD offered ________ ___ ___ _________________ __________________ Weed 916 938 12/10/88 yes Baker 619 733 not PacBell area FGD not available Los Banos 209 826 not PacBell area FGD not available I believe that Los Banos is in ConTel territory, although I am not certain, and do not know which independent Telco offers service to Baker. I also note that the date for equal access to Weed was not EOY 1987 but December of 1988. 6) US Sprint is mostly owned by United Telecommunications (80.1%). United is the second largest independent local exchange carrier in the US and serves mostly rural areas of the United States. Given this, I find it hard to believe that the management of US Sprint has a policy or attitude that, as you suggest, "...don't *really* want to bother with sleepy little out-of-the-way communities." 7) Contrary to the tenor of your message, US Sprint built a third transcontinental fiber optic route from the Chicago area through Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho to Seattle. This allowed Sprint to have owned fiber connectivity to ALL LATAs in the CONUS. This route provides service to remote areas of the US and network diversity and survivability. It was based upon a strategic decision to provide ubiquitous coverage in the US via fiber facilities and clearly contradicts your assertion that "what they were really after was to have the metro areas have universal equal access so that they could maximize their penetration in areas that required minimal cost." 8) Lastly, it seems that you believe that AT&T has provided universal service out of the goodness of its corporate heart. Until the recent price cap regulation (an outgrowth of divestiture and regulatory liberalization, the results of which seem almost painful to you) AT&T was GUARANTEED an adequate return on its capital investment in ALL areas, rural and metropolitan. This has never been the case with the OCCs. It took no significant financial courage for AT&T to provide rural service in the past. It will be interesting to see if AT&T continues to provide the same levels of support and capital investment in rural areas in the coming years as the plant ages and requires replacement or renovation. I don't think I'll hold my breath either. Regards, Kevin McConnaughey US Sprint Employee and Customer (415) 375-4585 [Moderator's Note: Regards your point (8) above, in Tuesday's Digest will be an article on AT&T and rural telephony in the 1930's. You will probably enjoy it. PT]