Australia, El Dorado County share broadband woes

While Australia's a long way from El Dorado County, the two areas face a common problem of an aging copper cable telecom infrastructure that isn't suited to reliably deliver broadband Internet. There are also strong parallels between Austrialia's dominant telco, Telstra, and El Dorado County's AT&T. Here's what's going on down under according to Kenneth Davidson writing in The Age:

While broadband of sorts might work over the copper network while it attracts 30 per cent of customers, by the time the broadband share reaches 60 per cent, interference and cross-talk will severely degrade the service even if the copper is well maintained.

But Telstra's copper network is no longer well maintained. The deterioration in the network would be even more apparent than it is were it not that drought, rather than maintenance, has been keeping water away from degrading the copper connections.

Can you say "diaal up" mate? Like many of their El Dorado County counterparts, half of all Aussies remain stuck in the Internet slow lane with sluggish dialup connections, according to another article appearing in The Age.

Residential customers need "Lots and lots and lots" of bandwidth

Residential customers need "lots and lots and lots" of bandwidth. So says Robin Bienfait, VP Network Operations for AT&T, in an interview at last week's Globalcomm industry trade show in San Francisco, where broadband was a major topic of discussion.

Ironically, large numbers of AT&T customers in El Dorado County might not even be able to hear Bienfait's remarks since they are streamed on a high speed video connection. That's because they have tiny, tiny, tiny amounts of dial up bandwidth since Ma Bell has done little if anything to upgrade her system in the county to support broadband.

To read about the Globalcomm conference and to attempt to listen to Bienfait's interview -- which could take quite a while at El Dorado County miniscule dial up bandwidths -- go to this Light Reading article. Bienfait's "lots and lots and lots" of observation is in video clip 3 under "Related Content."

A wireless broadband lesson from the Australian bush

Australian telco Telstra is hoping to avoid the expense of upgrading its wire line infrastructure to support broadband Internet access by turning instead to wireless broadband.

Sorry, mate, the service is turning out to be "absolutely dreadful" in trials, according to this article from down under in The Age. Back to the drawing board.

AT&T at strategic decision point for wire line service

It's decision time for Ma Bell. It's no secret that telcos like El Dorado County's provider, AT&T, have seen revenue from their wire line business decline as consumers stampede to cell phone service. Some consumers have even dropped their land lines completely, relying exclusively on their cell phones for voice communications. AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre told a meeting of regulators in San Francisco today that AT&T will lose 2.5 million to 3 million land line customers this year.

If AT&T is to restore lost revenues from its wire line services, it must offer more than just what's known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). AT&T must bring high speed data service -- i.e. broadband Internet connectivity -- to its wire line offerings and so do very quickly throughout its customer base if it hopes to recoup its lost revenues.

In El Dorado County, there's tremendous pent up demand for broadband since many county residents and businesses are limited to dial up service that might have been adequate in 1993 but is woefully inadequate today. AT&T should seize this opportunity and upgrade its aged, deteriorating wire line infracture in the county to fiber optic, which would allow it to offer voice and broadband Internet as well as other services in a way that's far superior to the frequently problematic interim technology of DSL. By upgrading its wire line plant in El Dorado County, AT&T can offer multiple services that can generate revenues that can more than offset the decline in its traditional land line POTS service.

If AT&T concludes investing in its wire line assets in El Dorado County won't generate adequate investment returns, it's time for it to bite the bullet and make the necessary business decision to pull out of the county. Divesting would make way for other providers to serve the county's pressing current and future telecommunications needs. It would also remove the chilling effect on market competition in the county that AT&T casts by its mere presence.

AT&T's Project Pronto wasn't: 1 in 4 customers still without broadband

AT&T's Project Pronto, which set a goal of providing broadband to 80 percent of its service area by 2002 and the balance by now, wasn't. Consequently, at least a quarter of AT&T's customers are left twisting in the wind with sluggish dial up Internet connections, according to this editorial by Dave Burstein appearing today in DSL Prime.

Burstein calls upon FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to hold AT&T's feet to the fire by holding up its planned merger with BellSouth unless it acts -- and not just promises -- to deploy broadband to more of its customer base.

Here's some PR puffery from 2000 from what was then SBC Communication's PR firm on the now discredited Project-Not-So-Pronto.

El Dorado telecom market needs local providers

El Dorado County’s market for voice and data telecommunications is stuck in the past, set up to serve the county as it existed nearly two decades ago but woefully behind where it needs to be today.

What the county needs to bring it up to date are nimble, locally owned and operated providers — enterprises to play the telecom equivalent of what El Dorado Savings Bank is to Bank of America.

The big, out of state domiciled Fortune 500 telecom behemoths are concentrating their growth strategies on large urban markets and on television and video services — services El Dorado County needs far less urgently than clear, reliable digital voice service and fast broadband Internet access. They have huge balance sheets and a nationwide territory to contend with and can’t focus their attention on a single, underserved market like El Dorado County. They are in the words of AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre in the “big pipes” business — providing the freeways that carry large amounts of telecom traffic. That’s a good business model for AT&T — to be the long haul carrier, the Internet backbone provider. It should pull out of local markets and make way for smaller, local telcos to provide services that AT&T by its actions (or more accurately, lack thereof) clearly does not want to offer.

What El Dorado County needs to compliment AT&T’s interstate and international digital highway system is a local telecom transportation department comprised of providers who can pave over its aging, deteriorating telecom roads and highways that are plagued with potholes of poor line quality and too narrow to deliver broadband Internet services.

Wireline market bifurcating as big telcos sell off lines

This New York Times (registration required) article reports big telcos are getting out of the traditional telephone business and selling off lines in some markets. The business rationale is these assets provide little revenue growth opportunity compared to booming wireless services.

Bucking the trend, The Times reports, is El Dorado County's telco provider, AT&T, which is sticking with its strategy of providing both wireline and wireless services. However, there's no evidence AT&T is doing anything to expand high speed Internet access in El Dorado County by upgrading its aged wireline infrastructure to support broadband.