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From: dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Maybe it Really is Time for Telecommunications Competition
Message-ID: <74411@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 10 Feb 91 21:40:32 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 108, Message 2 of 8


In article <74348@bu.edu.bu.edu>, abvax!iccgcc.DNET!herrickd@
uunet.uu.net (Dan Herrick) writes:

> Every community of any size in the United States now has a second
> company with a switch for providing public phone service - the
> non-wireline cellular phone provider.  His cellular system includes a
> network of cell transceivers connected together with copper wires and
> optic fibers and radio/microwave connections.  (They even buy some of
> those connections from the wireline providers, I'm sure.)

> What prevents a non-wireline cellular provider from starting to offer
> POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service?  There has to be one out there
> with capacity to spare owned by a curmudgeon spoiling for a good
> competitive fight.

The wiring to the cell sites is a drop in the bucket compared to the
wiring to every wired telephone in the community.  For the cellular
provider to wire the whole city would require a staggering investment.
Most local telcos probably couldn't afford to do that if their
existing cable plant were wiped out tomorrow and they had to rewire
from scratch at today's prices.

We can, of course, already use the local non-wireline cellular
provider's switch for local calls today.  Just replace your wired
telephone set with a fixed-location cellular set.  But the usage rate
is generally not competitive with existing local telco rates.  Also,
the local cellular provider buys 'dial tone' in bulk from the local
telco, so there is little real alternative in this approach.


Dave Levenson		Internet: dave@westmark.com
Westmark, Inc.		UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave
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