Customer Reviews

CLEC: An Insiders Look at the Rise and Fall of Competition in the Local Exchange Competition

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As the title suggests, the author gives a first hand view of life in a CLEC: The unbridled optimism created by the telecom act of 1996, the management decisions, underestimations, and consequences. His bias towards CLECs shows through, and readers may draw different conclusions about CLEC management teams. However, the book contains a wealth of information about the industry and a first hand account of the challenges faced by competitive local exchange carriers. The author explains the pressure applied by investors, management oversights, business plans, competitive interactions, and customer expectations. He also contrasts the local exchange market to the deregulation of the long distance market several years earlier. The book gives information on pricing and the cost of network deployment that is not widely circulated. The writing style flows well and is easy to stay with.
This is invaluable information to anyone in telecommunications, and is also a great case study for business students in general.

McDermott documents his first hand experiences within the CLEC industry, illustrating the good, the bad, and the ugly. From the enthusiasm created by Congress and the Telecom Act of 1996, to the poor execution by Executives, McDermott paints a clear picture of the rise and fall of the CLEC industry. This book provides insight into the obstacles that CLECs encountered on a daily basis. Obstacles included pressure from WallStreet, competitiion against the RBOC's and other CLEC's, flawed business plans, and their inability to execute.

The book also points out some of the things CLECs did as well. However, based on the current telecom market that has sent many of these companies packing and their shareholders broke, I found it to be extremely informative on why and how it failed so bad. This book is not for everyone, it is for persons who are directly or indirectly tied to the telecom and datacom industry or have plans to be. McDermott's style is smooth and the book flows well.

Well worth the $...

Buying this book is a lot like buying stock in a CLEC - but you will lose less money! For $, you get 325 pages with no references or documentation of any kind. McDermott makes myriad assertions as with RBOC use of the regulatory process: "They know how best to use it while their competitors looked at the process as a necessary nuisance to be put up with in order for them to get into business." No substantiation needed - this is not an academic treatise but a statement of "truth" from somebody who has been there. The only remaining question is whether this book offers true insight to the CLEC industry and how it thinks of itself, or if this book is merely McDermott's attempt to capitalize on the fact that he was an important player in the industry. In the end, it is a lot like buying CLEC stock: is the business case real or hype?