Don't just take my word for it...

dahamsta

In the past few weeks and months, we've heard a lot about communications successes and failures around the world. Not just in our own little world here on boards.ie, but out there on the greater World-Wide Web, in the newspapers, on the television, on the radio, everywhere. Unfortunately though, most of it is negative. Bob Cringley's near-hysteric commentaries[1] on broadband and DSL in the United States is one of the most recent and notable examples, with mainstream journalists like Karlin Lillington picking up on it and throwing it in our faces[2], as if to say: "You're looking for Valhalla, but you can't have it, get over it." (Here's news for you Karlin - we're not looking for Valhalla. But more about that tomorrow. )

If we're to believe the media, the telecommunications industry is dead or dying, with enormous debts built up as a result of bad business plans and the crass stupidity demonstrated by all parties involved in the third-generation wireless spectrum auctions. The second part I don't contest, because it's true - telecommunications companies quite literally picked up on the dotcom madness, tried to make it their own, and, like many dotcom pretenders, made a complete hash of it. But if anyone should have known better, it was the telecommunications companies. They are one of the longest surviving big businesses, and if they couldn't recognise the dotcom boom for what it was, they only have themselves to blame.

But the suggestion that the telecommunications industry is going to die is quite frankly ludicrous. We all need phone lines to survive. Communications is an integral part of society, and it's destined to grow and grow, no matter how badly the telecommunications industry handles it. Humans by their very nature need to communicate, and they're always trying to find ways to do it better, and faster - to improve their methodology. The Internet is a huge part of that - email has become almost second-nature to some of us - and the need to improve is not going to go away. The telecommunication industry can fight it all they want, but the first law of supply-and-demand is always evident - we want flat-rate Internet access and we want broadband, and eventually, someone will give it to us. If you want to compete, it had better be you.

But as the title of this post suggests, you don't have to take my word for it. I've said all of this again and again, and some of you believe me and some don't, and that's fine. I'm not a telecommunications expert by any manner of means, I don't pretend to be, and you shouldn't pretend that I am. So I'll hand you off to someone who is a telecommunications expert: Reed Hunt, the chairman of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the Unites States from 1993 to 1997. Some people have suggested recently that discussing situations outside our own scope isn't constructive, but I disagree. I say that they can be used as a point of reference, as a means to making decisions, to help us avoid making the same mistakes. And I think the following will prove that.

The following article is an interview with Reed Hunt for the McKinsey Quarterly, and to be honest I found it absolutely breathtaking to read. Once again, my own vanity plays a part, because Hunt seems to say what I think, and to be honest it's the first time that's really happened. The fact that the man has been so involved in the industry only serves to bolster that. Most of his answers to Rita Koselka, the interviewer, are so akin to my own beliefs it's astounding. But I'm not going to quote liberally from the article because it speaks for itself. I'm just going to pick out one passage, which blew me away:

The Quarterly: If you were to do things again, would you have tried to insist on another factor to get the former Bell companies to open their local markets, in addition to the "carrot" of entry into the long-distance market?

Reed Hundt: If you want competition in a hurry, you should minimize litigation. The 1996 legislation was written vaguely because Congress wanted to please everybody. There was nothing I could have done about that. As it was, instead of giving the national regulatory agency the power to set interconnection prices, the statute was ambiguous, so the authority of the FCC to determine the prices for new competitors to interconnect with the Bell local loops was challenged. Twice this issue has gone to the Supreme Court; the first case was over whether the FCC could set any national rules. The FCC won, but the case took two and a half years. The second case is about the methodology the FCC is using to set prices at a forward-looking incremental cost. I don’t expect the case to be resolved for 18 months.

Does that ring any bells? To me, it's not just bells, it's alarm bells. We're making the same mistakes in Ireland. We're not learning from our peers mistakes. That's not just wrong, it's criminal. And it proves to me without doubt that we have to pay attention to our peers. We have to note down what's working, and not working, and ensure that we do it right. We're doing it wrong. We've pushed the Communications Bill back. We have Eircom in court against the ODTR. We have no real competition. We have to educate, and they have to learn.

The article is here. You need to register for free to read it - believe me, it's worth it. In fact, it should be distributed to every single TD in Ireland.

adam

[1] Broadband Is Dead, Broadly Speaking, No Longer Feeling @Home
[2] That's not to say I don't appreciate Karlin's interest. I do.

Fergus

Nice work Adam..

I must include a copy of this in a letter I've written for the minister.

Now you've got me starting to wonder whether the new Comms Bill is still open to these legal challenges.. IANAL but I'd guess it probably is unless specifically designed with that in mind..

dahamsta

Thanks Fergus. And nice to see you back on the boards, I don't think we've heard from you in a while.

I must include a copy of this in a letter I've written for the minister.

I'm going to do the same myself, to the person I've talked to, but I think for "newbies" - i.e. people who haven't heard about this before, and don't understand the problem - cold, hard, simple facts will achieve more. I prepared/edited some documents for presentation myself, and others are free to use them. They're here, in a variety of formats. The OECD information is already on the IrelandOffline site, and I'll be building the rest into the Blackout site, and passing them on to Niall for inclusion on the IO site proper. Amendments and/or corrections are always welcome.

[EDIT: Of course, I don't mean to suggest that the McKinsley interview will not be appreciated by some people involved. Some, particularly those who have already dealt with IO, will appreciate this far more than a simple list of "cold, hard, facts". I'm just saying that given my meeting on Friday, I think that the McKinsley interview would be akin to trying to run before they can walk.]

Now you've got me starting to wonder whether the new Comms Bill is still open to these legal challenges.. IANAL but I'd guess it probably is unless specifically designed with that in mind..

I'll be honest with your Fergus, I haven't read it fully yet, I'm just aware of its importance. I'm printing it tonight.

adam

Fergus

Well me either.. legislation isn't exactly snappy reading. Though I noticed the penalties section specifically addresses corporate bodies. I'm sure it would be enough to be going on with anyway. It would be nice to get a comment from the ODTR on the delay...

Nice to see you back on the boards

Thanks Umm.. was operating Fergus2 here and there cos I'd forgotton my password and email after my cookie caused indigestion following the vbulletin upgrade.. But anyway, normal service now restored.

yellum

A great post. I'd like to see more posts like this on the IrelandOffline forums.

DM

Fergus

Here's a link to the current Bills before the Oireachtas:

http://www.gov.ie/bills28/bills/2001/default.htm

Seems like the Dept. of Health is making all the recent running. And of course it's imperative we have another round of the abortion circus. But don't worry about the information society.. it's not that important.

btw/ot.. I can't resist taking this opportunity to point out that the Swedish Parliament usually gets through over 200 Bills a year, but here in little old Ireland we're happy with a quarter of that.

Kairo

I don't usually read 'Uber' Posts like that..but I must say, yours was worth it.

Here, here.

I think a big, global telecommunications operation is in order. Something like installing Fibre-optics worldwide would sort them out.