At 2/1/2012 12:28 PM, Tom DeReggi wrote:
> Earthlink has established quite the fiber and CLEC footprint.
Thats an interesting topic.... Really? So they aren't primarilly
still just marketing and reselling off other CLEC's infrastructure,
like they used to?
I'm aware of the Atlanta project, where Earthlink was gonna do Fiber
and CLEC stuff, but not aware of progress since then, or if they
expanded to new markets.
The dream of owning the whole network is still far off for most
Earthink types. Sure they can buy Fiber transport and peer like
anyone else, heck Fiber backbones are almost as cheap as buying
Wireless backhaul in many markets the last year or two. The trend is
buy Darkfiber, Gig-E or 10G fiber for transport and interconnect to
the data center, and call yourself an ISP. But then there is still
the last mile, which is still mostly copper, that has to be bought
wholesale from someone, or a risky model if one tries to build their
own at the COs this late into the game.
Because of that, I had still visioned Earthlink as a "reseller".
Earthlink has bought up a number of CLECs, making them one of the
larger facilities-based CLECs. This is indeed quite a change from
their origins as a consumer-oriented ISP. Now they are selling
large-ticket business accounts. It was probably a smart move, since
wireline ISPs have had a hard time of it, what with the general loss
of common carriage and the ILECs' ridiculously high Special Access
rates. As a CLEC, though, they can at least get some DS1 loops at
lower (UNE) prices, and run their own DSL over short loops. Plus
they get the regular CLEC product offerings.
The cable MSOs are, in general, run by real business people who look
at real profit potential. This is in contrast to telcos, for whom
profit is merely an assumption, an entitlement to be granted while
they pursue their goals of power, control, and monopoly. Since
cablecos have no entitlement of profit, no USF, they don't invest
where it doesn't make sense.
WiFi, however, is chump change. They clamp an access point onto the
messenger, tap into the DOCSIS for upstream, and they cover a few
hundred feet of urban radius. This is much cheaper than a mobile
network, practically a rounding error in their finances. Clearwire
was a loser. SpectrumCo turned out to be profitable in resale, not
as an operating entity. They can experiment with WiFi on a small
scale, though, and see what kind of business potential it
has. Because it's their own backhaul, the OpEx is minimal.
--
Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com
ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/
+1 617 795 2701
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