Sprint’s upcoming monthly surcharge on its legacy Nextel customers, meant...
Sprint’s upcoming monthly surcharge on its legacy Nextel customers, meant to encourage their move to its newer CDMA infrastructure, is “absolutely necessary” because Sprint can’t afford to maintain the old infrastructure while moving toward new technologies, AT&T’s Bob Quinn said…
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in a blog post Monday (http://xrl.us/bn4tqg). Incumbent wireline providers like AT&T similarly need to transition customers off their legacy copper services, but unlike Sprint, they cannot “self-effectuate this transition,” Quinn said. Instead, ILECs must first navigate a “byzantine maze of proceedings prior to engaging the plan that Sprint has unilaterally put in motion,” he said. That’s why AT&T has asked the FCC to open a proceeding (CD Nov 8 p10) to expedite the wireline transition to an all-Internet Protocol infrastructure, he said. Quinn said Sprint’s position here -- increasing pricing to incent subscribers away from legacy technologies -- was at odds with its position in the special access proceeding. A Sprint spokeswoman rejected AT&T’s comparison between the “competitive” wireless market and the “near monopoly” AT&T has over special access. “If Sprint’s customers are unhappy with its pricing decisions, they will move to a new carrier. Purchasers of special access, on the other hand, have few if any alternatives,” she said. “Market power cannot be hidden behind such a strained analogy."