Access Reverticalization

1. Access Reverticalization Brough Turner Senior VP & CTO

2. Be Careful What You Wish For • Well intentioned, pro-competition regulation leads to high-priced international roaming • Started w/ restrictions on Vodafone’s acquisition of Mannesmann in 2000 • Called party pays (CPP) policy leads to high-cost mobile termination • Prices lower, usage higher, with RPP • And no impact on mobile penetration rates • Established regulation resistant to change

3. Competition Works Mobile Subscriber GrowthBy Competitors in a Country

4. The Only Real Monopoly … First Mile Right-of-Way • Many backbone ROWs = vibrant competition • Limited space in local rights-of-way • Water, sewer, gas, electric, phone & cable digging the streets… • Diverse regulatory histories • Established monopolies • Long, nasty fight ahead Photo by Dr. William T. Verts, http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~verts/things/things.html

5. Rates of Change • Switches & routers - Faster than Moore’s law • Lighting fibers - Faster than Moore’s law • Fibers themselves – Slowly improving • Poles & conduits – Slowly evolving • Local rights of way – Fixed & limited • Laws & regulation – Evolving very slowly What should we ask of our governments?

6. Today’s Debate is off Track • Broadband via existing monopolies • Open access to DSL... • VoIP as “telephone” service • Reciprocal comp • Universal service • CALEA, E911 • Fiber broadband as a “natural monopoly” • Wrong, wrong, wrong Wrong Issues

7. A Better Solution • User ownership or control of first mile fiber • From customer premises to an aggregation point large enough to attract >3 ISPs • Access to first mile right-of-way • Biz & home owners able to partner with developers for local fiber builds and fiber maintenance • Allow condominium fiber builds • Municipal provision of first mile dark fiber

8. Layer Zero Competition • Competing construction companies • Licensed to dig street and/or use poles for any purpose • Dark fiber networks • Build-and-manage, or as a condominium • Fosters new facilities-based ISPs • Doesn’t preclude PTTs or Cable Cos selling triple-play services • but competitive pressure would be acute!

9. Change the Debate • Law & policy evolve slowly • If we debate the wrong issues, law & policy will never meet our long term needs • Worse — transient fixes may setback progress • Change fixed broadband access debate to • Focus on Layer Zero Competition

10. Telecom Opportunity • Communications driving global economic, social and political benefits • Underlying technologies improving exponentially • 6.5 B people — 2.2 B mobile phones Enormous opportunity ahead! Have fun, help mankind, make money!

11. Brough Turner rbt@nmss.com Skype: brough http://blogs.nmss.com/communications/

12. http://mg0703.ersboda.ac/tomas/mattgrand/index.shtml Community Fiber, Ulmea, Sweden • Project completed in the winter of 1999-2000 • Buried fiber (& coax & copper) • 60 out of 62 single-family homes participating • 10/100 Mbps electronics • 66 Mbps link to Internet • Costs per household • One-time: <$2000 • Recurring: $10/month