Telcos Lay $200 Billion Goose Egg

The U.S. is ranked 12th in broadband penetration, says AT&T CEO Ed Whiteacre, and in order to bring America up to speed through fiber-to-the-premises (fttp) wiring, content providers are going to have to pony up to use his "pipes." He doesn't mention that the new pipes to be built have already been paid for, and they're very late in coming. "This is not right," Whitacre March. From Telephony Online: Today's average residential broadband user consumes about 2 gigbytes of data per month, Kafka estimated, which costs the service provider about $1. As downloading feature films becomes more popular, they might consume an average of 9 gigabytes per month, costing carriers $4.50. Mr. Utter quips: Essentially, today's user in a location where the choice for broadband is between a single cable provider and a single telecom DSL provider pays about $40 per month for a dollar's worth of service. 'Excessive' could be an understatement regarding that price. For the IPTV user of the future, bandwidth consumption is expected to be massive, and with it, so will be the cost to carriers. For years subscribers have made a down payment on those costs. The little end of the money funnel will direct the bulk of funds toward infrastructure to support IPTV (i.e., transitioning from copper to fiber). But Kushnick charges that funding for the build out was supplied through hundreds of billions dollars in tax breaks and incentives piled atop an empire of broken promises. Kushnick, who has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking for an investigation, Kushnick's "$200 Billion Broadband Scandal" says the government was promised 86 million households with fiber wiring delivering bi-directional 45 Mbps speeds, capable of handling 500 channels by 2006. He calls it a fraud case, with deft omission in the annals of the FCC, that cost households at least $2000 a piece but got nothing in return. "Customers paid for a fiber optic wire and got DSL over the old copper wiring - it's like ordering a Ferrari and getting a bicycle," he writes in the "Bait and Switch" bullet. I changed my mind. Mr. Whiteacre is not correct; it does make sense that America is lagging in broadband service. It was planned that way. If it costs, as Mr. Czwartacki said, $1,500 per household for 100Mbs, maybe we're in for a $500 rebate. Or maybe, instead, the here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") Yahoo My Web