First and foremost, I would like to thank the FCC for their key decisions in the divestiture and break up of the Ma Bell monopolies. Without that key decision, I (and many others) would not be where they are today. 12 years later, we can now comment on the mistakes that were made. The FCC had great ideas and all the best intentions but it was not a well thought out plan. The simple fact that any single person could have purchased a switch (as long as they had the money to do so) and call themselves a CLEC was not as well planned as one could have expected. When "Bob's Lawyers, Telecom Bar and Grill" opened it's doors, the world of communications as we knew it, was officially over. Eventually, Bob went out of business, thus taking not only his customers out of service but ended up ruining the great name that the Telecom industry was trying to build.
Fast forward.... [2008]
Finally, we see the errors for what they were... Unguided misjudgments. The new Telecom world is among us. The way I see it, Ma Bell will go back to Ma Bell. All of the successful CLEC's that happened to find the correct niche to outlast the thousands of others will be acquired (that's right, acquired) by the Ma Bell or equivalents. There have been some very (I emphasize very) successful CLEC's which deserve our praise for what they have done. Now it is there turn to go back to their roots and become Ma Bell once again.
Now what??? After Mother reels her children back from their adolescent nature, the future is in the wholesale vertical. The big companies are too big. They cannot commit to excellence in customer service like the smaller resellers can. The big company can handle what it does best, big facilities. They need to maintain the networks for the little guys to sell. Let's face it, all services and facilities are the same. We all use the RBOC platform. The only differences are in the customer service and SLA promises of the little guys to their end users. The small guys can make a promise to their end-user and potentially 'keep it.' This is great for Ma Ma because she now will no longer need to worry about collections since if the small guy doesn't pay, Ma will shut them down no questions asked. There is no better way to get your money quite like shutting down the operation. Another reason for Ma to love the little guy is the little guy is one big customer. No more dealing directly with thousands of end users that don't know their telephone from their cup holder. One would hope the little guy has a team of savvy guru's that will help aid in the troubleshooting that would be necessary to uphold a true SLA promise.
The future looks amazing. Promises of better service because the big companies can once again focus on what they do best, maintain facilities and a network. The resellers can do what they do best, offer excellent service and support while providing solutions for the best network.
Let the Telecom World Revolution begin!
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