Smoking gun in CA

[mikebw@bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

  Fred R. Goldstein wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
  
   FRG> That is precisely what PacBell has recently proposed to the
   FRG> FCC, in the form of a private "white paper" or something
   FRG> that doesn't have a Petition number and therefore is neither
   FRG> public nor open to refutation by the public.
  
  Under FCC rules, such a communication is "ex parte" and must be recorded with
  the Secretary.  If you can identify the document sufficiently well, you are
  entitled to a copy.  You can file under the FOIA if the Secretary fails to be
  co-operative, but this is rarely the case, absent a national security or
  similar kind of concern.
  
   FRG> Of course the demand for net service would not go away.  The
   FRG> CATV companies would gleefully pick it up, at $30/month flat
   FRG> rate, with a 400 kbps-plus data rate.  They'd finally get
   FRG> off the dime and get serious about doing this quickly, not
   FRG> slowly.  And while they're at it, they'll also sell voice
   FRG> dial tone, since they're allowed and Lucent (and others)
   FRG> will be happy to sell them the needed HFC gear.  So the
   FRG> telcos would not only earn the wrath of their
   FRG> potentially-best residential customers, but they'd lose
   FRG> ratepayers in droves. (Note that most telcos don't have
   FRG> residential customers, just subscribers or ratepayers.)  In
   FRG> the end they'd find themselves burdened with a heap of
   FRG> stranded investment and negative growth.
  
  I think that the fundamental problem is that the telephone system still
  operates internally on the "virtual circuit" model.  I have little confidence
  that cable modems will ever really work, but at least they will force the key
  "bandwidth on demand" idea forward.  "Nailing up" a switched circuit is not so
  bad unless the whole infrastructure has been based on the assumption that
  people will not do this.  On the other hand, there are numerous sites connected
  to the Internet full time who utilize no network resources unless they are
  actually moving data. As the telephone network converts from analog to digital,
  it has to stop using analog connectivity models.
   
  -- Mike