Telecom Argentina backpedals a bit

LOCAL NEWSPAPER r Clarin reports today that Telecom Argentina is apparently backpedaling just a bit -but not conceding defeat- on its recent announcement which talked of compulsory traffic metering for all ADSL subscribers of the phone company -regardless of the ISP used. The new controversial service plans double the current customer's service speed but impose traffic limits and billing, which is scheduled to start in mid-2005. After the public outcry, the company apparently wants to tone down the discussion and please their existing enraged customers. New users, however, will still have to pay through the nose as there will be no "flat rate" plan available for them.

A few days ago, the local consumer protection agency issued a ruling effectively blocking the telco from making changes to its ADSL service, but the measure barring the company from implementing and advertising the change will only last ten working days. In the last week, the company struggled to keep their collective head out of the mess it digged itself into, first saying that the 4Gbytes/month limit originally announced "was not set in stone", and backpedalling even more today by saying that metering will not be mandatory for the existing customers.

Under the new plan -at this time of writing and barring any further backpedalling by nervous company execs- the company says users who refuse to accept the new service conditions (metered plans which doubled the current speeds) will have the option to keep their current connection speed, unmetered. New ADSL subscribers, the company insists, will have no option but to get a metered plan.

"The network is Mine, Mine!"

Even with this modification, the irony here is that Telecom Argentina wants to charge new customers for traffic that is essentially local in nature, going from the customer's ADSL modem to the DSLAM and then over the telcos IP network ending finally at the facilities of the ISP contracted by the customer. Telecom Argentina and Telefonica have a de-facto monopoly on the local loop, and the connection from the ADSL user to the ISP's backbone goes through a VPN. Unless you contract the incumbent's Arnet or Speedy, it is an independent Internet Service Provider, not the telco, who is footing the cost of the international data pipes.

According to a local news site, a member of the firms' legal team voiced his displeasure to a local reporter over all that questioning, by saying "If you're going to traffic (data) over my network, it's logical that you pay a fee. It wouldn't be logical to be forced to give away something for free for something that I had to pay. If you want the traffic over a network to be free, then build your own".

"It's the local loop, stupid"

Sebastián Bellagamba, who heads CABASE, an association of local Internet Service Providers, recently declared: "the source of that problem is the lack of competition", focusing on the lack of regulatory action by the current administration. "The only ones with access to the local loop" [the phone wires] "are the incumbents Telecom and Telefonica. In many places around the world governments implemented the 'local loop unbundling' which means the possibility of any competitor to lease those essential facilities at a reasonable cost, so they can bring any services they want to offer over the leased copper line, which has a regulated (leasing) cost. There is a year 2000 decree by the SECOM (local telecommunications authority) which started the unbundling process, but that process was never completed".

He concluded by saying "I believe that if the local loop unbundling were in effect, there would be full competition in the ADSL market and Telecom would be able to take whatever business choices they have to take, but at least the user could opt to switch to another provider with different service conditions". On the legislative side, deputy Oscar González (PJ), seemed to agree, "Telecom goes against what is happening in the world". "Basicly, competition must be stimulated, and that will be done once and for all by implementing the local loop unbundling", he said.

There's an online petition against ADSL traffic metering at peticionbandaancha.com which has already received over 14.000 signatures from outraged broadband users.
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