Forbearance? You've Got To Be Kidding Me!

Thankfully, the FCC rejected Verizon's Forbearance Petition yesterday.  Verizon was asking for relief from regulation that requires them to provide wholesale access to their plant, so that CLECs can resell T1s and DS3s, in six metropolitan areas:  Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, and Virginia Beach.  Had the FCC granted the petition, CLECs would no longer have the option of reselling the incumbent local exchange carrier plant in those areas, and it would have set a horrible precedent.  It would have been the death knell for the CLEC industry.

I can't help thinking, "what is Verizon smoking?"  While I can understand why Verizon would be interested in the demise of the CLECs,  how can they possibly believe that there is sufficient competition from CLECS with their own lines in the ground to justify regulatory relief from wholesale reequirements?  Andy Lipman posts on FreeToCompete that fewer than 2% of buildings in these six markets are connected to CLEC facilities. 

And the mere possibility that the FCC might have actually approved the petition is scary.

I do consulting work with CLEC VoIP carriers who are providing innovative services to businesses through the resale of these high-capacity circuits, and the competition is not just "sell the same thing as the ILEC but at a lower price."  These companies are selling improved services, often at higher prices than the ILEC.  What more proof do we need that businesses value these services from the CLECs? 

The bottom line:  wholesale access to incumbent local exchange carrier T1 and DS3 lines has been a great thing for businesses, because competition has meant that businesses are getting better service, not just lower prices, and without this competition these businesses would still be stuck with a monopoly provider that doesn't care about them.  Verizon should be ashamed of asking for relief.

More on GigaOm, here and here, on FreeToCompete here, and a contrarian view on Technology Liberation Front.