Ill. regulators are impeding SBC from offering DSL services to co...
Ill. regulators are impeding SBC from offering DSL services to consumers there, SBC Chmn. Edward Whitacre told key members of Congress in March 14 letter. He urged them to pass legislation that would remove regulation for provision of high-speed…
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Internet services and thus solve problem in Ill. Whitacre said Ill. Commerce Commission had ordered SBC to unbundle facilities it was deploying to extend DSL to residential areas that were more than 12,000 ft. from central offices. Unbundling would require SBC to provide competitors with each portion of new DSL service, SBC said. Whitacre said Ill. order would cost SBC hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, making it “economically impossible” to deploy DSL in Ill. through remote terminals. SBC has been “forced to halt indefinitely further deployment and activation” of DSL facilities in Ill., he said. He said one million consumers who lived beyond distance limitation of central- office-provided DSL would be deprived of chance to get DSL at all. He said legislation to ease Telecom Act restrictions for data services would eliminate problem. Letter went to House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.), Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.), House Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.), Rep. Dingell (D- Mich.), Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.).