Testifying before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, Sprint Senior Vice President Al Kurtze today called on Congress to demand that local phone and cable companies provide their competitors greater access to high speed data lines into homes to ensure consumers reap the full benefits of new broadband technologies.

Kurtze, Senior V.P. for One Sprint Strategic Development, told members of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection that efforts by monopoly local phone and cable companies to limit access to existing phone and cable links to the home will leave consumers technologically stranded.

As part of his testimony, Kurtze outlined Sprints revolutionary plans for Sprint ION, the Interactive On-Demand Network, and explained how restrictive practices by the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), GTE, and cable companies could limit availability of these types of broadband services consumers say they want.

Broadband access, and particularly broadband access to the home, is the last roadblock inhibiting many Americans from enjoying the benefits of the telecommunications revolution, Kurtze said at the hearing on broadband technologies.

The Bell Companies and GTE have successfully stonewalled to date in making xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line) capable facilities available on reasonable terms. Now they are urging Congress to change the law to remove the current legal obligation to provide access to their needed facilities, Kurtze said. Sprint and other companies would like to install DSL equipment to increase the capacity of the existing copper lines into most homes in order to offer competitive broadband services.

Kurtze added, The cable companies have adopted a similar stonewall approach, with AT&T trying to buy up cable companies or tie them up in exclusive agreements and then denying access to competitors such as Sprint.

These restrictions on the two primary existing routes of access to consumers are a serious problem, Kurtze said.

He noted that Sprint has begun a massive effort to collocate xDSL equipment in many Bell and GTE central offices, but has encountered well-documented problems in gaining access. In nearly 20 percent of the RBOC and GTE offices where Sprint has requested the ability to install its own broadband equipment, that critical access has been denied, he said.

Further, more and more local connections now being installed are not designed to be compatible with the xDSL equipment that Sprint and other competitors need to use to bring a choice of broadband services to consumers, he added. As many as half the local connections soon wont be capable of supporting broadband services offered by competitors, Kurtze said.

Sprint is actively working to develop other methods of reaching consumers with its broadband services and, while several options have promise, phone and cable lines today are the only two technologies currently available and generally deployed to the home, he said.

Sprint is in the process of buying rights to companies holding licenses or leasing rights to frequency spectrum in the Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS) band as one alternative means of reaching consumers. However, Sprint wouldnt be able to offer meaningful service for some time, and many parts of the country arent covered by the licenses the company has acquired, Kurtze said.

Low earth orbit and geostationary satellites, along with PCS and other wireless technologies, have been cited as alternatives to deliver broadband services to consumers, but those also have limitations and would not be available any time soon, he noted.

Meanwhile, Sprint is working today to bring to consumers Sprint ION, its revolutionary family of broadband services. Sprint ION provides all distance voice, video, and data services using a transmission facility over Sprints network. Sprint ION service replaces multiple access networks from multiple suppliers and provides the opportunity to offer a package of multiple services over a single network.

This week Sprint announced the Introduction of Sprint ION to consumers in Seattle, Kansas City and Denver, but that does not discount Sprints concern about the potential for the RBOCs, GTE and cable companies to limit wider broadband access, he said.

The sad fact is that the Bells, GTE and the cable companies are not only denying access to their broadband facilities, they are slowing the availability of robust integrated broadband products such as Sprint ION in most regions of the country, Kurtze said.

Perhaps in five to 10 years there will be other alternatives to the phone company and the cable company lines to the house. Until that time, Congress should be demanding greater access, not deregulation of the monopolists essential facilities, he concluded.

Sprint is a global communications company  at the forefront of integrating long distance, local and wireless communications services and one of the largest carriers of Internet traffic. Sprint built and operates the United States' first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and is a leader in advanced data communications services. Sprint has $17 billion in annual revenues and serves more than 17 million business and residential customers.

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Contact:

James Fisher, Sprint , (O) 202-585-1947
E-mail: james.w.fisher@mail.sprint.com