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Thursday, April 26, 2007

DSL: You'll Know It When You've Got It

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    Many of New Mexico's rural areas won't know they have Qwest high-speed Internet until they've got it.
    The company has an agreement with New Mexico to improve Qwest Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)— a hard-line high-speed service— in rural areas.
    Qwest officials, however, won't give residents dates to expect service.
    "Over the next three years, high-speed Internet will be coming to many communities throughout New Mexico," said Qwest spokesman Gary Younger in a phone interview early this month.
    Qwest will not release a time-line for service in any particular area, with one notable exception. Angel Fire was told that service would come no later than May. The area came online earlier this month.
    According to a Feb. 8 article in the Sangre De Cristo Chronicle, area residents sent 250 petitions to the company requesting high-speed Internet.
    "They worked to get their name on the list," Younger said, referring to a list of areas to receive service.
    Other areas won't even be told that construction for a high-speed line is being done.
    "We will announce where an area is (set up for service) when we are ready to turn it on," Younger said.
    The company will invest about $270 million in New Mexico in accordance with an Alternative Form of Regulation (AFOR) agreement with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
    "It took a while, but we did it right," PRC Vice President Jason Marks said, referring to the agreement.
    The most recent settlement between the state and Qwest stipulates high-speed Internet access for at least 50 percent of people in rural areas. It is actually the second AFOR Qwest has agreed to after the company failed to fulfill its first agreement.
    The original AFOR was signed in 2001. The PRC found Qwest in violation of that agreement in 2005.
    To hold Qwest to its obligation under the original agreement, the PRC had to do a little strategic maneuvering. That's because DSL was deregulated in 2005 by the Federal Communications Commission, around the time Qwest was found in violation of the original agreement.
    The PRC could no longer require Qwest to supply infrastructure for high-speed Internet, as per the original agreement, but because Qwest was found in violation of the first agreement, the regulatory agency had Qwest "over a barrel," Marks said.
    "Qwest had to voluntarily agree to do the things that we didn't have jurisdiction over," Marks said.
    PRC officials told Qwest they would not accept anything short of the company's voluntary agreement to make investments that gave the original AFOR full value, including high-speed Internet, or "kick it all out in cash," according to Marks.
    The final agreement also includes a $15 million refund to consumers— which translates to about $23 for each customer— and requires that at least 50 percent of people in rural areas have access to high-speed Internet over the next three years.
    "It's not the time to celebrate now. The time to celebrate will be when (Qwest) follows through and the customers have seen those benefits," said Marks.