SBC's Lightspeed: Same story, different year
The phone giant is promising more fiber broadband--but it's said that before.
SBC Communication's new "Project Lightspeed," which is aimed at building fiber optics more deeply into its broadband network, is getting mixed reviews. With good reason.
The company said yesterday it had signed a $1.7 billion contract with Alcatel for equipment, which is a good start. The breakthrough, it has said, was the recent FCC decision to allow telephone companies more control over networks that were part fiber, part telephone lines. With that ruling in place, it can finally start building high-speed networks using fiber. No, really this time.
Broadband Reports' Karl Bode provides good perspective on this. "Project Lightspeed," he rightly notes, looks very much like the "Project Pronto" that SBC promised back in 1999. That earlier project got scrapped until SBC got exactly what it wanted from the federal regulators. Another example of technology advances being tied very closely to regulatory game-playing. Bode and others note that the Bells are very good at pursuing carrot-and-stick strategies with regulators, except they keep offering the same carrot and then never actually delivering.
Let's hope this time is different.