Still fighting against telco's limiting other ISP

[James Knott]

Yanni Chiu wrote:
> In another mailing list I'm on, someone is defending Bell's position.
> I'd like to have the opinion of people here. His contention is that
> wholesalers just resell Bell's internet service, and thus are not true
> competitors. He contends that a true competitor would locate equipment
> inside Bell's central office switches, so as to gain access to the
> "last mile", and that equipment would connect to the Internet
> completely independently of Bell (instead of the current wholesale ISP
> situation). He add's that such a competitor may face obstacles from
> Bell when trying to gain access to the central offices though.
>
> So I'm wondering, is Bell required to provide access to their central
> office switches to allow competitors to access the "last mile"?
>
> Is it reasonable that only the "last mile" should be open to
> competition, or should the "last 10 miles" be open (i.e. the 10 miles
> that separate all the central switches from the big internet pipes).
>
There are some competitors that install equipment in the Bell CO.  A few
years ago, I was configuring some DSLAM shelves for Sprint in Bell COs. 
A case could be made that Sympatico be completely severed from Bell,
with Bell providing only the pairs to them on the same basis as they
would any other ISP.  At the moment there is a lot to be concerned about
in the telecom world in Canada, as the CRTC appears to be favouring the
major incumbents at the expense of competition.  Net neutrality is
another critical area that comes to mind.

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