Perspectives on Competitive Fiber Networks: Past, Present, and Future

Tuesday, October 9, 2012; 2:00 - 6:25 PM
@ University of Colorado Law School, Room 101

To view the video recording of this event, Click Here.

In the early 1980s, upstart firms were only beginning to imagine the possibilities of constructing and providing rival fiber network-based services to large business customers. At that time, the concept of "competitive access providers" (or CAPs) was only beginning to take shape. The rise of Metropolitan Fiber Networks, or MFS, demonstrated that such offerings could be the basis of a thriving business. Aided by the AT&T consent decree and state public utility commissions interested in encouraging entry, the success of such efforts laid the groundwork for a more ambitious undertaking: the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The 1996 Telecom Act initially gave rise to considerable hopes for how Competitive Local Exchange Carriers, or CLECs, could build on the success of the CAPs. Indeed, the confidence that such CLECs were truly on the rise and constraining the legacy market power of the incumbent providers led the Kennard FCC in the late 1990s to deregulate, to a considerable degree, the market for fiber-based services to big businesses (the so-called "special access" market).

Alongside the formation of CAPs and CLECs was the commercialization of the Internet. Unbeknownst to CAPS, the Internet drove demand for high capacity circuits in the mid-1990s. Unforeseen by the authors of the 1996 Telecom Act, the biggest revenue source of CLECs was dial-up Internet Access. The Fiber Boom of the 1998 through 2001 was entirely driven by grandiose premonitions of how pervasive the Internet would become.

As it enters its third decade, the commercial Internet is transforming our economy and society. Nonetheless, the telecom bust left the once-rosy hopes for the CLEC sector is a state of disarray. That said, fiber optic connections are the lifeblood of Internet connectivity and, amidst the rubble of the telecom bust, competitive fiber providers are playing an essential role in enabling an Internet-driven society to create economic prosperity and a higher quality of life.

The Front Range plays a uniquely important role in the resurgence of the Competitive Fiber Industry. The three largest competitive fiber providers in the U.S. are Level 3 Communications, tw telecom, and Zayo Group, all of which are headquartered locally. The majority of competitive fiber constructed since 1998 is now owned and operated by these three companies. All three are growing their Colorado-based headcount. All three are led by executives who trace their roots to MFS.

In this conference, we will examine the dynamics of competitive fiber networks, with leaders of the top companies providing opening keynote addresses and expert panels providing different perspectives on how the sector developed and where it is headed.

Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship | sf@colorado.edu

CU | CU Law | ITP | JTHTL

XHTML 1.0 Transitional | CSS | RSS 2.0