Telecom Rumors Abound

By Peter Radizeski, RAD-INFO

The Telecom world is rife with rumor:

The Google phone.

Cable buying Sprint.

Sprint merging with Clearwire.

Alltel actively looking for buyer.

T-Mobile stopped looking for a buyer.

XO realized there was no buyer.

AT&T buying a satellite TV company.

Verizon and AT&T selling a Walled Garden.

It’s amazing that people won’t talk about the big elephant in the room:

Namely, what happens if Verizon gets its forbearance (FCC Docket No. 06-172)?

In Boston, New York, Phillie, Pittsburgh, Providence, R.I., and Virginia Beach MSA’s, there would not be a CLEC to buy DS1 and DS3 circuits from. It would be game over for the New Paetec, ITC Deltacom, and a few others like Choice One would be hurt.

EarthLink and Time Warner Telecom are in court this week trying to bring back DSL line sharing.

This would be worse.

Do CLEC’s have a contingency plan if this does pass? Because today’s FCC doesn’t have a problem giving the ILECs everything they want.

Peter Radizeski is president of

RAD-INFO

. He can be reached at

[email protected]

.