This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it of Inventive Media kindly and generously agreed to allow us to post his inspiration "how I got my start" story. The article may be found on Matt's blog at http://www.thelar.com/index.php?m=200411#5

The Long Way Around the Phone Company: The Story of our 120 Mile Bandwidth Bypass

Scottsbluff is a community of about 25,000 situated in the North Platte Valley of the Nebraska Panhandle. By most standards, Scottsbluff would be considered little more than a rural outpost. But in many ways, this little town on the prairie is right at the forefront of a breakthrough in the digital divide.

Do It Yourself DSL
In 1998, Scottsbluff was the third town (after Lincoln and Omaha) in the state of Nebraska to have publicly available DSL service – "homebrew" DSL delivered across "dry loops" intended for alarm circuits. My ISP business, Scottsbluff Networx, installed PairGain DSL modems to our first clients that summer and before too long we had several business customers eagerly jumping onto our $200/month 768K service, the first under $1000/month broadband offering in the area. This situation was a win/win for us – our cost for the alarm loops was $8 to $15 per month, and the remaining revenue from the DSL customers allowed us to install more backbone capacity – and our customers were getting a service at a price several hundred dollars a month below the T1 service then available from the ILEC.

The situation did not last long. The telephone company decided to charge a higher rate on the 'dry loops' along with much higher installation costs. Our $8/month loops suddenly became $30/month loops, with $150 to $300 line conditioning fees added. Then, in August 1999, we were told by the ILEC that the dry loop service would be discontinued. Some desperate research pointed us in the direction of becoming a CLEC, at which point the ILEC would be required by law to provide us with UNEs – Unbundled Network Elements – which were basically the same circuits that we had been utilizing for the past year. After a couple of months and several thousand dollars of expense, Scottsbluff Networx became a CLEC and was able to continue offering DSL service.

Becoming a CLEC introduced us to a whole new set of problems. To obtain the UNEs, our techs had to undergo training on the archaic and cumbersome line ordering system used by the ILEC. Even after training, the system changed on a regular basis and it took quite a few man-hours to stay up to date on how to order services through it. We were forced to pay large fees for our own CLLI (pronounced silly) codes for each central office that we provided service in. Actually getting the service installed was also a hit or miss proposition, as loops that looked good on the ordering system were often denied once the local tech was sent to do the installation work. Several parts of town were also denied service because of the poor condition of the copper plant. DSL lines would randomly quit working and trouble tickets would go unresolved. The initial promise of DSL service was fading quickly as it became clear that the ILEC would only provide the minimum amount of service required by law while throwing up economic and procedural roadblocks to CLECs. One ILEC required a $30,000 fee just for access to a single central office. When the extra charges and man-hours required to keep up with the regulatory marathon imposed by the ILECs was added up, we were losing money even on $200/month DSL lines. In our area, the deployment of DSL was constrained by political issues and the inability of the ILECs to work with independent ISPs and CLECs. Perfectly good technology was rendered useless by the unnecessary bureaucracy and obstacles put in place by the ILECs.