US West has told the Public Utilities Commission that they will not offer tariffed ISDN services to people who aren’t served by ISDN-capable equipment.
This means that if you are located in the right part of town your cost for ISDN would continue to be roughly $80/month. If you are located in the wrong part of town your cost for ISDN would be around $300/month.
If you are a prospective consumer of ISDN, an ISDN services provider, or simply a citizen concerned about electronic redlining, or the competitive position of our region, please join me in:
We need to let the PUC know about our concerns NOW. They will be doing their final review of the tariff in the next few weeks.
The stuff that follows explains what’s going on, why it’s a big deal, and how you can put your oar in.
Mike O’Connor (mike@haven.com) Tuesday, March 14, 1995
ISDN is gaining ground as a practical interim step between the sluggish phone line you're probably using to view this (9600 or 14400 baud, right?) and the snazzy stuff that everybody says is just around the corner. So here's what ISDN is all about.
The good news is that a recent tariff filing by US West holds out the promise of widely available, affordable ISDN in the Twin Cities. The tariff currently before (and tentatively accepted by) the Public Utilities Commission states that single-line ISDN will cost around $80 per month. Not inexpensive, but much less expensive than the $200 - $300 per month charges for the untariffed service.
But, there is emerging A Catch.
US West is deciding (mostly as the outcome of repeated battles between The Marketing organization and The Networking organization within the company) that only those of us who live in areas served by ISDN-capable equipment are going to be able to take advantage of a new, more affordable tariff. Here's a map that shows who the "haves" and the "haven-nots" are going to be. Notice anything in particular? Looks to me like there are a lot of central-city citizens in St. Paul and Minneapolis who are going to watch the Information Railroad pass their community by.
This map shows the telephone exchanges of the Twin Cities. A green dot means that there is an ISDN capable switch serving the exchange. A red dot means "tough luck" for the people living in the area.
Here's the map, in a downloadable format
I've located the schedule of switch upgrades (and thus US West's likely schedule for deploying ISDN services to currently unserved areas).
Switching Prefixes Deployment office served (some) Scheduled ------------ ------------- ------------ 24th 721,722,724,728,729 4th qtr 1998 Beard 922,924-929,993 4th qtr 1996 Bryant 287,520,521,522,529,588 4th qtr 2000 (!!) Franklin (FR) 775,813,863,870-872,874,879 4th qtr 1996 Front This switch may be ok - it's a VCO out of a served switch Hopkins Oops - deployed - ISDN *is* available I'll change the map Midway (MIDW) 620,637,641-647,649,659,962,966,969,989 4th qtr 1996 Pillsbury (PLSB) 821-825,827 4th qtr 1998
Somebody would be well served to do some demographics on top of this deployment schedule. It sure looks to a casual eye as though these are in sequence based on average income. The good people up in the Bryant area look to be seriously out of luck. Next in the list o'losers are the folks in central Minneapolis.
Our leverage as consumers is to be found in the cost study that US West filed to support how they arrived at the $69 rate in the tariff when they filed for the new rates.
When US West put the tariff filing together, they developed projections of how many ISDN lines they would sell across the whole Twin Cities area. Then they figured out how much it would cost to provide the lines. Then they priced the service. That’s the number in the tariff. It’s the PUC’s job to review all that and make sure that US West is getting a fair return - not abusing it’s monoply provider position.
The costs of providing ISDN metro wide are included in that cost study - based on projected demand from *all* parts of town. Not just the costs of providing ISDN to the right part of town.
Essentially US West is now coming back to the PUC and saying "well, we were just kidding in that cost study - we’ve decided we need more money." What's worse, they're asking to extract those additional dollars only from those people who aren't fortunate enough to live in the suburbs.
We need to alert the Public Utilities Commission that we support the cost and pricing structure of the recently-filed US West ISDN tariff - which is based on reasonably-priced ISDN, consistantly available across the Twin Cities metro area. And that we will not support unequal access to this technology within our communities.
Maybe you've got opinions about this? Or you know of others? Here are some people to contact:
1. Public Utilities Commission
Don Storm - Chair of the PUC
Phone : Address :
Fax : 612-297-7073
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Don.Storm/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us
Mark Fournier - analyst in charge of ISDN tariff
Phone : 612/296-3793
Address : 350 Metro Square Building
121 7 Place E
ST PAUL, MN 55101
Fax : 612-297-7073
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Mark.Fournier/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us
Deb Smith - Contact person in the Consumer Affairs Unit (file complaints here)
Phone : 612/282-5947
Address : 350 Metro Square Building
121 7 Place E
ST PAUL, MN 55101
Fax : 612-297-7073
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Deb.Smith/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us
Genesh Krishnan - Department of Public Service (the investigatory arm of the PUC)
Phone : 612/296-1255
Address :
Fax : 297-1959
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Genesh.Krishnon/x121=92971959/@fax.state.mn.us
Mark Oberlander - Former analyst in charge of ISDN tariff
Phone : 612/296-1335
Address : 350 Metro Square Building
121 7 Place E
ST PAUL, MN 55101
Fax : 612-297-7073
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Mark.Oberlander/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us
2. US West Catherine Hapka - President of Lotsa Stuff, including ISDN
Phone :
Address :
Fax :
Email : chapka@acs.uswest.com
Jeff Altom - ISDN Product Manager
Phone : 612-663-3371
Address :
Fax : 612-663-3682
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Jeff.Altom/x121=96633682/@fax.state.mn.us
3. State of Minnesota Information Policy Office
Elaine Hansen - Commissioner of Administration
Phone : 612-296-1424
Address : 50 SHERBURNE #200
ST PAUL, MN 55155
Fax : 612-297-7909
Email (through the State’s FAX gateway):
/pn=Elaine.Hansen/x121=92977909/@fax.state.mn.us
Beverly Shuft - Assistant Commissioner, Information Policy Office
Phone : 612-296-5694
Address : 658 CEDAR #320
ST PAUL, MN 55155
Fax :
Email : bev.schuft@state.mn.us
Here’s the list of email addresses, for those of you who will be sending an electronic message to all these people (I’ve included my name too):
/pn=Don.Storm/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us,
/pn=Mark.Fournier/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us,
/pn=Genesh.Krishnon/x121=92971959/@fax.state.mn.us,
/pn=Deb.Smith/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us,
/pn=Mark.Oberlander/x121=92977073/@fax.state.mn.us,
chapka@acs.uswest.com,
/pn=Jeff.Altom/x121=96633682/@fax.state.mn.us,
/pn=Elaine.Hansen/x121=92977909/@fax.state.mn.us,
bev.schuft@state.mn.us,
Rep.Steve.Trimble@House.Leg.State.Mn.US,
Rep.Alice.Hausman@House.Leg.State.Mn.US,
mike@haven.com
If you live in one of the neighborhoods that has been "redlined", I urge you to contact your city council person and alert them to this issue. This is something that they need to be aware of - because it determines whether citizens in their areas will have access to the current practical state of the art in networks. This in turn determines how easy it will be to for their constituents to telecommute, to start a network-based business, or to gain access to the advanced educational opportunities of the internet. This isn't the only answer to central city economic revitalization - but it's an important one.
Thanks for your attention. Please help.
Mike O'Connor
mike@haven.com
612-647-6109