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The Anarchist Cookbook (Addendum) –
Start Your Own Telco! |
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A SeaBoard How-To Guide |
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April 2005 - IGB
Grant +1 514 849 3508
& Brian Sharwood +1
416 413 9381
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KEY HIGHLIGHTS: |
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- Canada’s CRTC has just issued its ‘views’ on Voice
over Internet services in the Canadian market. The Commission has decided
that telephone companies, the ILECs, must file tariffs for VoIP service
because, in its view, IP phones are just another flavour of telephone
service. Other companies that chose to offer VoIP services may do so
without reference to the CRTC. All companies, telcos and others, must
offer 911 services, and they must (curiously) offer their customers choice
of long distance carrier.
- Seaboard takes issue with the Commission that telephony is just another
flavour of voice. This paper, however, goes deeper. We ponder why the
Commission feels the need to regulate the telephone companies – why
do telcos need to be hobbled, while other competitors, including some
rather sizable entities with their own ‘reach’ and marketing
muscle, are given a leg-up. The answer seems to be that the telephone
companies have a virtual monopoly on the market. Telephone companies,
it seems to the Commission, can use their market size and power to
keep prices high. We thought we’d test that proposition. We thought
it useful to understand exactly how difficult is would be to start
a telephone company. If you were so inclined, how would you get into
the
telephone business?
- What is required to start you own telco? Very little. A
Visa card is all you need. Here’s oursummary of the steps involved:
- Find a Colocation facility and order your T1s (AllStream, MCI,
or Navigata would work fine)
o Buy some servers (Dell, or even eBay)
o Buy some line cards (Digium or Sangoma)
o Find a couple smart network engineers who know Linux (ex-Nortel
folks who might be paid in beer would be cheapest)
o Start downloading and assembling
o Begin marketing and finding customers
- When we put this together our initial capital was CDN$7828.28. – far
less than the days of the internet and telecom bubble when
competitive phone companies had to raise hundreds of millions just
to acquire the first customer.
- In this paper we show you what to buy, what to get it and how to
get started. Congratulations, you too are now a phone company! Watch
out though, the long arm of the CRTC may reach out to you too!
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