RCN's Unbundled Access in NY

As the competitive cable company wins a ruling from the New York Public Service Commision, one industry advocate argues that the baby bells need to be broken up.

by ISP-Planet Staff [July 23, 2001]

RCN Corporation applauded a recent ruling by the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) that allows RCN and other competitive cable carriers to directly connect new customers in residential multiple dwelling units (MDU's).

Previously, RCN was dependent on the incumbent telephone monopoly to connect new RCN subscribers to the telecommunications, or house and riser, facilities located in multi-tenant buildings. ISPs will be familiar with the situation.

"This ruling is the outcome of three years of hard work and dedicated effort on the part of RCN and its staff," said Jeffrey White, president of Customer and Field Operations for RCN. "We fought hard because we know that in buildings where RCN owns or controls the house and riser facilities, our customer penetration is significantly greater than in buildings controlled by others."

Prior to last month's ruling, RCN participated in a 25-building trial that ran for over a year. The NYPSC determined/found that during the course of the trial, RCN technicians provisioned and installed more than 1,000 lines without any disruption or impairment to customer service.

The unanimous decision also comes on the heels of a commendation from the NYPSC recognizing RCN for the second year in a row as a top-performing company in providing local telephone service.

Also last week the advocacy association CompTel released a white paper, entitled "Structural Incentives: The Simpler, More Efficient Path to Local Competition," arguing that there are barriers to competition entrenched in the local exchange carriers (ILECs) themselves. As both a monopoly supplier and competitor in the local phone market, the ILEC is driven by an inherent conflict of interest.

According to the paper, ILECs have a strong incentive to preserve their local monopoly and prevent competitors from effectively competing, even to the extent of subverting the Telecommunications Act's clear goal of nondiscriminatory access to the existing network.

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