Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 16:23:00 CST
From: Jack Decker <Jack@myamiga.mixcom.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: The Smallest US Telephone Company
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 764, Message 2 of 4

In message <telecom12.751.6@eecs.nwu.edu>, gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
(Gabe M Wiener) wrote:

> In article <telecom12.748.5@eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Moderator notes:

>> the smallest phone company however. There is (or was) a guy in
>> Colorado who owned a telco with *eight* subscribers.

> How does he qualify as a telco per se?  How does this differ from any
> organization that buys its own PBX?  Or is the distinction that any
> call outside of the local equipment is long-distance?

One distinction (at least in Michigan) is that you have to get a
license from the Public Service Commission to be a phone company, and
one of the documents you have to file is a map or geographic
description of your exchange boundaries.  An organization that has its
own PBX most likely will already be within the service area of a
licensed carrier, and thus is not eligible to form their own phone
company (at least until the law is changed to allow local competition).

Now, if you are with a company that really wants to be its own local
exchange carrier, come up to East Lake in Michigan's beautiful Upper
Peninsula.  You'll probably be required to provide local service to
the 30 or 40 residents that want phone service in the area, but I can
guarantee you that no one will object to you starting a local phone
company there (East Lake is like an albatross around the neck of the
PSC in this state ... it's a problem that won't go away!).  Only one
problem, you may have difficulty acquiring enough privately owned land
for your operation since most of the land is national forest.

> Incidentally, I've always wondered ... hypothetical: someone moves out
> to the middle of nowhere ... buys switch and hooks up 30 odd
> subscribers to old used SxS ... how does he go about getting long
> distance connectivity?

Ah, there's the rub!  Used to be you just went to the nearest major
carrier (usually the nearby Bell or GTE company) and they were more
than happy to acquire new customers.  Now, however, Bell actually
wants money to provide this connectivity.  For providing long distance
service to East Lake (a distance of about 10 to 15 miles from their
nearest exchange ... and their fiber optic toll cable actually runs
THROUGH the affected area), they wanted over $100,000.  Were it not
for that, the folks in East Lake might have phone service today.

(One other wrinkle on this story: I found out a couple months ago that
GTE North purchased a $2 million wireless rural system to provide
service to some unserved customers in their territory, that would also
have been capable of serving the folks in East Lake.  Only thing is,
East Lake is only about 40 miles or so from the Canadian border, and
nobody at GTE bothered to get the necessary approval from the Canadian
government (required by some treaty) before purchasing the system.  I
hear they've put in the application now, but if the Canadian
government turns thumbs down, GTE just bought a $2 million boat
anchor, for all practical purposes.  PLEASE NOTE that I got this info
secondhand from a source at the PSC, so please don't ask me for any
more details on this, and don't quote it as absolute fact to anyone
else without checking the details first).

> [Moderator's Note: I think he qualifies as a telco instead of a 'PBX'
> because he has several users who are not associated with each other
> through any common affinity group, i.e. not all of the same employer;
> not all of the same residential premises, etc. To get long distance
> service he cuts a deal with the various carriers. That is how it is
> done now days. Anyone can be a telco; anyone can be an LD carrier.  PAT]

I'd still like to know if there is ANY place in the United States
where there is REAL competition for local dial tone for RESIDENTIAL
customers.  If there is no such place, then I would say that the
statement that "anyone can be a telco" rather oversimplifies the true
situation.


Jack Decker   jack@myamiga.mixcom.com    FidoNet 1:154/8