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Like two spoiled two-year-olds that want to play with the same toy, the incumbent carriers and the DLECs are finding it difficult to share those valuable copper wires that lead into customer homes and offices.
Although the FCC-mandated deadline requiring the incumbents to begin sharing their copper facilities became effective in June, DLECs just now are beginning to take advantage of the ruling, which allows them to offer DSL to consumers without installing a second line to the home.
The reasons for the slow start are partly procedural, partly technical. For a network to be outfitted for line sharing, a splitter must be installed at the central office. Whether that splitter is installed by the ILEC or the DLEC varies depending on the ILEC and each state's public utilities commission (PUC). Most ILECs prefer to install the splitter in a common area of the central office so that they can have access to the loop at all times, something that many incumbents maintain is critical for them to provide the federally-mandated "lifeline" phone service.
Likewise, most DLECs prefer to mount the splitter in their central office space so they can troubleshoot their service. If the splitter is in the ILEC's portion of the central office, the DLEC may have difficulty pinpointing cabling errors.
On the procedural front, line sharing requires the DLECs to more closely coordinate their order processing with the ILEC and in some cases, revamp their internal processes to handle orders. In addition, if the DLEC uses an ISP to resell its service, it must train the ISP's customer service employees to handle orders without truck rolls and to troubleshoot problems that could occur within the ILEC's voice line, the DLEC's data service or the ISP.
For incumbent carrier SBC Communications, which recently announced a major line sharing and service alliance with DLEC Covad Communications, the technological challenges of line sharing are not insurmountable. According to spokesperson Saralee Boteler, SBC is comfortable with line sharing and has put lots of resources toward making line-shared lines available to its competitors. "Our overall concern is that line sharing be transparent to the customer. If a customer is dissatisfied it reflects poorly on us and our competitors," Boteler said.
Covad itself has been fairly progressive on the line-sharing front. As of late September, the company had about 900 central offices, or about 50 percent of its network, outfitted with splitters. The company books about 200 line-shared lines per day, which means that about one-third of its current installs are over line-shared lines. By year's end the company wants the majority of its ADSL lines delivered via line sharing and is planning an aggressive self-install campaign in first-quarter 2001.
Dan Esterbrook, Covad's senior product manager for consumer DSL service, says that by using line-shared lines, his company hopes to reduce its wait time between order and installation to 15 days from the current 23 days.
For NorthPoint Communications, interacting with the ILEC is the most difficult part of making line sharing a reality. The company is conducting line-sharing trials with all the incumbents and plans to begin full-scale rollout of line-shared lines early next year.
How well an ILEC cooperates in the line-sharing process could play a big role in determining which markets have line sharing. NorthPoint Director of Product Marketing Mark Raggio says that his company will begin offering line-shared lines in markets that attract the most consumer business and where the ILEC is ready to provision line-shared lines.
A learning experience is how one New Edge Networks executive describes her company's line-sharing experience. "We are well down the path of working out operational issues," says Stacey Waddell, New Edge co-founder and vice president of network deployment. The company, which delivers DSL to small and medium-size markets across the United States, is testing line sharing in Minnesota and Vancouver, Wash.
But before the DLECs can make good on their promises of a DSL installation devoid of a truck roll, the squabbles between the incumbents over where to put the splitter must be resolved. And like a lot of other factors in line sharing, that decision ultimately rests with the state PUCs.
If all goes well, soon the participants all will be working and playing well with each other.
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