Texas Releases Competition Report

The Texas PUC released its 2019 Scope of Competition Report.  The Report examines the state of competition in Texas since the last report was released in 2017.  According to the report, three trends continue to define the competitive telecommunications marketplace in Texas: (1) decreases in the number of traditional analog telephone lines; (2) substitution of wired service by wireless service; and (3) adoption of highspeed broadband services and other IP-enabled services like VoIP, which requires a broadband connection.  The report states that the major driving force in the competitive telecommunications market continues to be the deployment of new technologies, which often provide business opportunities for both existing and new competitors.  Moreover, “[t]he most prolific new land-line based technology in the telecommunications marketplace is VoIP, which permits internet technology to be used for voice transmission. This enables much more efficient use of network capacity, as voice and data can share the same communication channel simultaneously. Cable and telephone companies offer VoIP service by using their own broadband data networks, while third-party service providers rely on their customers' existing broadband connections to provide VoIP service.”

The Report notes that there are at least 383 companies providing voice services to customers in Texas and that the competitive landscape in Texas has changed from being dominated by competition between ILECs and CLECs using traditional wireline infrastructure to competition among diverse companies using various wireline and wireless technologies.  Among other things, it notes that, as more subscribers use wireless service as a replacement for traditional wireline services, wireless subscriptions also continue to grow. 

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The Regulatory Mix Today:  Texas Releases Competition Report, Nebraska to Investigate CenturyLink 911 Outage

Nebraska to Investigate 911 Outage

The Nebraska PSC opened an investigation into the CenturyLink outage which began on December 27, 2018, and disrupted access to 911 service in Nebraska and other states.  The investigation is intended to develop further information on the impact of the outage in Nebraska, and to examine how to avoid, respond to, and/or lessen the impact of any similar future disruptions.  In addition, the PSC will consider whether the outage provides any lessons for the implementation of next-generation 9l-l- in Nebraska in areas such as system design, failover options, vendor selection, reliability standards, back-up systems and related matters.  

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.