Realty group slams CLEC access plans

By David Rohde
Network World, 09/20/99

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The real estate industry has banded together to quash a proposal that would extend government regulation of telecom services beyond carriers to commercial building owners.

As ammunition, the real estate interests have launched a broadside against the competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) industry, claiming the new carriers can't even complete the projects for which they've contracted, so they should not need government help to gain new business.

At stake is the ability of users to gain fixed wireless bypass around local telephone companies' access lines, via antennas mounted on office buildings and linked to riser cables.

Wireless local loop companies, such as Winstar, Teligent and NextLink, say commercial building owners are making it tough because they have sweetheart deals with Bell companies and demand exorbitant fees to let them install their equipment on rooftops.

But the real estate interests say these and other CLECs are trying to get the government to subsidize their buildouts, and the companies can't even keep up with the projects they've already won. The real estate interests banded together into a group they call the Real Access Alliance to fight a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to force them to provide rooftop access to all carriers on a "nondiscriminatory basis."

Late last month, the alliance presented the FCC with a package of affidavits from building managers around the country claiming that rollout of fixed wireless services is running behind.

"Many CLECs are still suffering growing pains and in a significant number of instances cannot provide the full range of services they are marketing, even when they have access to buildings," said lawyers for the alliance in a letter accompanying the package. The lawyers later added: "Building owners must not be made the scapegoats for economic forces entirely outside their control."

The Real Access Alliance is also throwing the carriers' own announcements back in their faces. For example, in July Winstar announced it had won access rights for more than 5,500 buildings and expected that number to rise to 8,000 by year-end. Last month, Teligent announced it had raised its year-end target for securing access rights by 20% from 5,000 to 6,000 buildings.

"People who are getting access aren't living up to the promises that they made in getting that access," says Gerry Lederer, vice president of government and industry affairs at the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), which leads the Real Access Alliance.

Some supporters of the FCC proposal previously formed their own coalition to advance the interests of fixed wireless carriers. But the group, called the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition, has had problems convincing all its members that a FCC building-access mandate is the way to go. In its filing with the FCC supporting the building-access proposal, this coalition had to admit that some of its members don't agree with the proposal and weren't participating in the comments. Those members included Bell Atlantic and BellSouth.

The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition members that remain - including wireless equipment manufacturers such as Alcatel, Harris and Nortel Networks - say they're not asking special favors. Instead, the members say they're asking that the same principles that guide interconnection of telecom networks - that everyone should have access at a similar price - should apply on rooftops and elsewhere inside buildings.