WAISP: From The Executive Director (fwd)

[Joel Ware IV]

For your info --
Here's a message from Gary Gardner, Exec Dir of WAISP --
Washington Association of Internet Service Providers, of 
which SCNA is a member.

The concept he has that the takeover might move US West in the direction
of bringing better service and less hostility to ISPs is interesting.
Time will tell -- 

-Joel.


Joel Ware, IV  SCN delegate to WAISP   jw4 at scn.org


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 17:34:39 -0700
From: Gary Gardner--Executive Director <exec-director at waisp.org>

To: exec-director at waisp.org  (etc).

Subject: From The Executive Director

Greetings from Denver!

I'm in Denver on a couple of matters this week, and the news here of
USWest's takeover by Qwest Communications is the major news story and topic
of discussion.

I thought I'd share a few thoughts with you about what this conglomeration
could mean to the relationship ISPs and WAISP have with USWest as well as
their corporate culture.

For some time we have been dealing with a corporate culture that permeates
USW, and that stems I think, from it being dominated by ex "monopoly"
oriented management, and being led by Sol Trujillo who wants USWest to be
the one stop shopping point for all their captive customers, and speaks of
a ubiquitous "WebTone" that he terms is similar to dial-tone for Internet
traffic... his goal is to have consumers get web tone just like dial tone.
Of course USW would be the provider of both, and ISPs would and do face the
same sort of access and competitive issues faced by the CLECs who have to
deal with USW for dial tone.

On the other hand, Qwest, whose management APPEARS from press accounts to
be the ones calling the shots, are a CLEC of sorts, having built a fiber
optic network on the railroad rights of way once controlled by major
founding shareholder Phil Anschutz. The CEO of Qwest is an ex ATT man,
Joeseph Nacchio, a man familiar with the ILEC/CLEC fight. Qwest made its
money by selling transport to the other long distance providers and is much
more in the "mode" of competitive access to all.

How this shakes out in the coming months is anyone's guess, but it is
possible, and I am HOPEFUL that the inbred corporate culture at USWest will
be replaced by the competitive culture of Qwest.  One thing that is being
talked about by some, particularly the Colorado PUC (the equivalent to the
WUTC), is service quality, and Qwest appears to have taken note of the
problems, but press accounts still point to Trujillo's denial of any
problems.  However, the merger faces FCC as well as utility commission
approval in all of USW states and service quality will no doubt rise to the
forefront, and give Qwest an opportunity to make some promises.

You might find the following link interesting, it is the main headline
story from Monday morning's Denver post, and it has links to the package of
stories they have done on USW today, including in-depth coverage of the
"players" as well as the service quality issues.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/biz0719a.htm


Gary Gardner
Executive Director, WAISP





* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *