smartfart's Journal: Thanks, FCC

It's been a whole 2 weeks since the FCC decided to let Bell stop sharing their lines with independent DSL providers, and I'm already out of a job. Admittedly, I'm only going to lose a couple hundred dollars a month, but I'm angry nonetheless.

My company provides occasional tech staffing for a smallish DSL provider less than 100 miles from New Orleans, and I was notified late Friday that as of October 1, they will be shutting off DSL service to their customers. I figured something like this would happen, since I started seeing commercials a week ago advertising DSL for $24.95 from BellSouth. My client (who asked me not to tell anyone about their decision until after they notified their customers, which is why I'm being evasive here) simply can't compete with $25 per month DSL.

In other words, Bell lowered their retail rates, but not the wholesale rates they quote to third-party vendors. The whole point of the AT&T breakup in 1984 was to stop Bell from using monopolistic practices against its competitors. I understand that the bottom dropped out of the long distance market a few years ago and they're looking for new revenue, and I'm also at least slightly sympathetic about their potential impending losses due to the the VoIP revolution, but I still say that this latest bit of deregulation was a bad move. With the stroke of a pen, the Federal Cracker Company has wiped out an entire industry.

Note to independent DSL providers: if you aren't partnered with an ILEC, you're toast.