Total Rethink by David McCourt

Author:David McCourt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119565345
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

The city authorities, however, were not keen to grant us access to the streets.

“You are not a utility,” they told us, “or a phone company or a cable company. You are not proposing to act as a private contractor. We don't know who you are. We don't know whether you have the right to dig up the streets, so we're shutting you down.”

I went in personally and explained how a network like this would make downtown Boston more attractive to companies. My argument convinced them, but they thought that such a network should be built and owned by the city, so it took several more months to convince them that they should let me build and own it.

Our battles were not over. In April 1989, Teleport Communications Boston (TCB), our rivals (half owned by Merrill Lynch and half owned by Fidelity), put forward a request that our certification should be denied because we lacked “the financial and other resources and competence necessary to conduct a viable operation in Massachusetts.” It went on to argue that because we would inevitably fail, our “weakness and instability” would cause potential business users to avoid all alternative carriers entirely, and “to be safe,” they would place all their traffic with the dominant carrier, New England Telephone. How hysterical that they were suggesting that the city should shut down their competitor because if that competitor failed it would discourage other people from competing, when people continuing to try again and again is America's secret sauce.

Fortunately the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities did not agree with this argument and granted us the necessary certificate. What happened after that was the exact opposite of what Teleport was predicting. At that stage we were the only two potential competitors to the incumbent, who had 100 percent of the market. Today, the incumbent only has about 40 percent of the market, and that share is shrinking all the time, and there are hundreds of independent companies doing well, all copying our original model. The same has happened in every market we are working in. In Ireland alone, there are now 70 independent phone companies.

A more detailed account of this period is contained in Tele-Revolution, a history of the creation of a competitive local telephone industry by Richard C. Tomlinson. Dick very kindly inscribed my copy with the words, “A prime mover in the Revolution.”

By holding firm to my belief that it was possible to reach residential customers cost effectively when everyone else believed it was impossible, I developed something of a reputation in the industry at the time. Reed Hundt, FCC Chairman from 1993 to 1997, began referring to me as “the Poster Boy for Residential Competition.”

However rich or powerful a corporation may be, it cannot resist progress and evolution forever.

Always look for better, cheaper ways.

If you have a good idea, be persistent.

Cooperate and collaborate and be part of the empowerment culture.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.