TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Experts Outline Telecommunications Challenges Facing New Hampshire

Telecommunications in the Year 2000 and Beyond
New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission
March 17, 2000

Telecommunications experts gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the industry in New Hampshire and the region as part of the NH Public Utilities Commission's conference "Telecommunications in the Year 2000 and Beyond" on March 17.

Dr. Lisa Shapiro, Chief Economist for Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell, led the conference's panel discussion which included representatives of CTC Communications, Covad Communications, MediaOne, Third Rail Wireless, Lightship Telecom, and Eyeon Interactive, a NH-based web design company.

Each of the companies represented provides services using a wide variety of technologies, such as DSL (digital subscriber line) and ATM (asychronous transfer mode). All have the goal of providing both voice and data services to New Hampshire customers.

The discussion highlighted both the tremendous advancements New Hampshire has made over the past five years in providing Internet access and the problems facing the industry and the state in providing high-speed access.

Among the challenges facing the state is the lack of companies providing high-speed Internet access to residential customers. While MediaOne has targeted its rollout of broadband cable technology to residential customers and currently provides broadband Internet access to 230,000 New Hampshire homes, the other companies represented largely provide services to business users.

Another challenge addressed by the panel is the lack of high-speed access in rural areas of the state. Most of the high-speed technology has been deployed in Southern New Hampshire, and representatives indicated that access in rural areas would not take place for another one or two years. One exception is Third Rail Wireless, which is working on a project with the National Guard to provide access through microwave technology in rural areas of the State.

The panel and audience discussed the role of government in solving the problems the industry faces in rapidly building out new facilities for residents and businesses in the State. One suggestion was to consider separating the functions of incumbent telephone providers into two distinct parts -- telephone (and other data) services through retail sales, and plant and equipment services, whose services would be sold at the wholesale level. Another suggestion included creating tax credits or vehicles for government financing to encourage investment in rural areas.

In response to a question from Commissioner Susan Geiger of the New Hampshire Utilities Commission concerning the role of the Commission in helping to educate consumers about the telephony choices available, Mark Samber of Eyeon Interactive suggested that government should focus on providing access to services over the Internet. "If you can take things like getting hunting permits and bring them to the web," said Samber, " ...it would be a stimulus for providers to develop the broadband for people to use it."

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