AT&T has filed an advice letter that would eliminate tariffs on data circuits in California. Instead of tariffs, sample rates would be published in a guidebook. This change has gone into effects in other states. While it is possible to see this as yet another AT&T anti-consumer move, the truth is more complex. All has not gone well for detariffing and AT&T suspended its request temporarily. |
| The detariff advice letter is hard to read. It seems unlikely that residential phone service will be detariffed. But services used for data networking almost certainly will be. In California, most data services were already furnished under ICB contracts, so the rate elements in the tariff were largely unused -- except to waive in front of customers to convince them that their special contract rates were really special. It may be that the biggest effect of detariffing is that AT&T will no longer be required to publish redacted ICB contracts. It will then be more difficult to judge what services really cost. |
Selected ICB contracts for data services have been culled from AT&T's advice letter web site.
The CALNET-II agreement specifically
authorizes ICB contracts
Some advice letters detail how carriers connect to each other. The Level(3)-AT&T interconnect agreement is an example.
Advice letters can do more than present service rates. They can also present helpful descriptive material about the services. Southwestern Bell Arkansas Gigaman. The California version is much shorter.
UCSC got a zero-mile Gigaman on a 5 yr contract for $3750/mo. is Sept 2005. Tariff would be $5000/mo
Gigaman Calnet-I contract (obsolete)
8/2005 Custom Switched Metro Ethernet expired
8/2006 Custom Switched Metro Ethernet withdrawn 7/2009. Now under guidebook.
Opt-e-man tariff withdrawn 7/2009. Now under guidebook
Opt-e-man Calnet-I contract (obsolete)
Opt-e-man private contract . Note that there is a 60 percent discount in this example.
$580/month buys you one opt-e-man connection to the network and one CIR. A pair of these makes a point-to-point link.
opt-e-man private contract for a hub with three spokes
<-- This is a good deal, but not as good as Northrup.
Better private opt-e-man Large Northrup contract, see page 109
The CPUC Telecom Industry Rules explain why ICB contracts are important to everyone. See 8.2.2 on page 13.
ICB contract pricing is usually much better than tariff or Calnet pricing.
DS1 and DS3 Calnet-I rates (obsolete)
For federal rates see section 5.7.9 starting on page 211 for FCC tariffs.
Optical presentation from SBC
Calnet rates for T-1s are better than the FCC tariff rate. But the FCC rate is better than Calnet. This difference is very dramatic for terms 3 years and longer. It appears that CSME (Customized Switched Metro Ethernet) is not available in locations where Opt-e-man is available. Earlier CSME tariff said that customers would be required to switch to Opt-e-man when it became available in their service area. The current tariff eliminates this language. Note that line extender repeaters ($375/month on 60 month contract) for CSME are MUCH less expensive than regenerators for Gigaman ($850/month on 60 month contract). Opt-E-man is meant to be priced like frame relay -- distance insensitive with use of interoffice trunks bundled into the cost of the service. It does not appear that CSME has network side trunks. Indeed, it appears that a CSME network will build out of single 7609 switch, perhaps using repeater amplifiers where required for long circuits patched through wire centers to reach distant destinations. When comparing CSME and Opt-E-man pricing, the equivalent of a 100 Mb/s CSME port ($1925) is a 100 Mb/s Opt-E-man port PLUS a 100 Mb/s port CIR ($1775). 60-month term pricing. CalNet pricing is typically 10 percent below tariff rate. Note that in Illinois, there is a filed tariff for costs to resellers that beats this (22 percent). So CalNet is not as good as wholesale. ICB pricing (custom quote) can be much better than that. Oklahoma Ed pricing for CSME is much better than tariff. 10/100 Mb/s ports are $1100/month. Gig is $1600/month. Opt-e-man has policing which permits SBC to make QoS guarantees. It also permits them to sell at CIRs that are below the line rate, e.g. 500 Mb/s on a Gig-E handoff. January 2006