The author of an Internet Innovation Alliance paper...
The author of an Internet Innovation Alliance paper responded to claims of poor scholarship by Comptel. That association of CLECs had argued the paper incorrectly analyzed cherry-picked data to show that unnecessary regulation forces ILECs to make significant investments in…
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outdated facilities (CD Oct 22 p6). Comptel’s analysis is “deeply flawed,” said the author, Georgetown Visiting Policy Scholar Anna-Maria Kovacs. “In an attempt to claim that ILECs have only minimal fixed-cost left in their networks, Comptel depreciates ILEC networks fully without crediting the new investments they have made. Comptel simply ignores the $175 billion the ILECs have invested in their networks between 2006 and 2012.” Comptel makes an “equally extreme claim” when it says ILECs make no investments in obsolete technologies, Kovacs told us. In so doing, it dismisses a Columbia Institute for Tele-Information study done by a team led by Robert Atkinson, she said. That study found that between 2006 and 2011, legacy infrastructure consumed 53 percent of the RBOCs’ capital investment, she said. “While there was gradual improvement, legacy investment still consumed 42% of the ILECs’ capital expenditures in 2011,” Kovacs said. “Comptel ignores the statistics but selects a few quotes that indicate some broadband deployment. It then assumes that if the ILECs make some broadband investment, then none of their investment is legacy.” The consumer communication market is “highly competitive,” Kovacs said. “It is time to plan a rational transition that will encourage investment and innovation while ensuring the achievement of key public policy goals such as consumer protection and public safety."