[1st-mile-nm] FCC approves CenturyLink, Qwest merger with conditions

[peter baston]

Good points Jason

Every time I look at these orders for a Quality Assurance perspective I ask
myself this question

1. How is this edict going to be monitored and enforced.

Over many years Qwest / and before US West have been asked to provide a
network map of existing ( & Future ) broadband service area and the SLA
under which the services are monitored and they have steadfastly refused
because they know that without this its simply a legal wrangle when they
default on any promise and or commitment legally bound or not.

Qwest and the Old US West had a great record for coming up with reasons that
they could not keep regulated promises and lets not forget that the reason
that this merger is taken place in the first place is that Qwest is nearly
bankrupt due to an imploding dial-tone wire-line market

This is going to get more complex with Rural broadband as the Federal  (
Dept Agriculture ) money is streaming out to vendors and builders in 2010 /
11  ( often putting them in huge dept that they will have a hard time
recovering from ) and the best practice regulations and how toos containing
the above Network Design  / Operation and SLA agreements being developed by
NTIA / NIST will not be funded until 2013

You simply cannot mange what you do not measure and you cannot measure what
you do not " see "  and our Telcos are well aware of this. Trying to
regulate the later is a lesson in futility

In a better world the FCC should have said , : Fine merge anyway you like
but provide at no cost every one of your users now and in the future and
Ipad 2 and or Iphone with service and let Apple monitor the SLA "  Now that
would be fun and enforceable

So Jason how about doing that for NM

( : ( : pete

-- 
--------------------------------------
Pete Baston
IDEAS  "I"  Quality Assurance - Due Diligence
www.ideapete.com
Cell: 303-579-6531
Mailto:pete at ideapete.com

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 2:05 PM, Marks, Jason, PRC
<Jason.Marks at state.nm.us>wrote:

>  I read this order a couple of days ago, and I think they (FCC) pretty
> much got it right. I am worried, however, that it may prefigure approval of
> the ATT/T-Mobile deal, justified by the imposition of regulatory conditions.
> Regulators often find the opportunity to "impose" regulatory conditions that
> would otherwise be beyond the regulator's jurisdiction to be very
> attractive. E.g., in Centurytel, ordering levels of DSL penetration and
> pricing concessions in what is supposed to be a unregulated market. (I put
> "impose" in quotes because I think I read that the Qwest/Centurytel
> conditions not just agreed to by the merging companies, they were initially
> proposed by them.)
>
> Vis a vis ATT/T-Mobile, I am concerned that further consolidation and
> market concentration in the wireless sector will prove to be harmful to
> consumers in the long term.
>
> Jason Marks
>
>  *From*: Richard Lowenberg [mailto:lowenberg at designnine.com]
> *Sent*: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 01:23 PM
> *To*: 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org <1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org>
> *Subject*: [1st-mile-nm] FCC approves CenturyLink, Qwest merger with
> conditions
>
>  FCC approves CenturyLink, Qwest merger with conditions
>
> Mar 23, 2011 12:02 PM
>
>
> http://broadcastengineering.com/news/fcc-approves-centurylink-qwest-merger-with-conditions-20110323/
>
>
>  The FCC <http://www.fcc.gov/> approved the merger March 18 of CenturyLink<http://www.centurylink.com/>and Qwest
> Communications International <http://www.qwest.com/>.
>
> As a condition of the approval, the FCC imposed protections against the
> risk of harm to competition and ensured the merged entity will live up to
> its commitments to expand its network and launch a major broadband adoption
> program for low-income consumers, an FCC statement said.
>
> Based on the companies’ agreement to certain conditions, the FCC found that
> the potential public interest benefits of the merger are likely to outweigh
> the potential harms.
>
> Among the conditions for approval were steps to improve broadband adoption
> for low-income households. Specifically, the conditions include requiring
> the launch of a major broadband adoption program focused on connecting the
> millions of low-income consumers in the combined company’s 37-state
> territory.
>
> The company also must offer qualifying households broadband starting at
> less than $10 per month and a computer for less than $150 and keep the
> window open for five years for qualifying consumers to sign up. And, the
> company must make a significant annual commitment to marketing, outreach and
> digital literacy training and include detailed reporting on outcomes and an
> independent analysis of the program’s effectiveness.
>
>
>
>      ------------------------------------------------------------
> Richard Lowenberg
> P. O. Box 8001,  Santa Fe, NM  87504
> 505-989-9110 off.; 505-603-5200 cell
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>
>
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