Your company can also lease T-1 services, interoffice switching, billing and collection services, operator services and myriad other services under terms and conditions negotiated with the ILEC in the interconnection agreement. Specifics of exactly how to do this are far too complicated to be included in this article. Suffice it to say, that if your company is astute enough to assemble unbundled telephone components and combine them with other services, the margins are good, and prospects for profit exceptional. In many ways, this is one of the areas where cable is positioned to take the lead. There are areas in virtually every metropolitan service area where people have the demographic profile in terms of income, occupation and technical savvy to avail themselves of high-speed data services to the home or small office.
Internet access is particularly lucrative at the present time.
ISDN lines provide some relief, but even 128 Kbps is underpowered for large downloads, graphics, video and multimedia. That's where cable modems come in. Of course, as we pointed out in last month's article, this is easier said than done for the cable company. Large capital investments must be made to upgrade the network for two-way traffic. Think back for a second to that certificate of operating authority your company filed for.