@jbtaylor on tech

If you're like me, you've got a ton of these cables sitting a box in a closet somewhere. They came with old VCR or DVD players that were long ago replaced, but somehow they're orphaned now.

This slideshow explains what each kind of cable is used for. It also recommends sources for new cables should you need them. If you like gadgets like we do, take a look. This will be helpful. (Oh and about those orphaned cables, consider recycling them, that will give you more space in your closet and keep electronics waste out of landfills.

Last week, the public interest group Free Press held a policy summit which attracted every telecom policy nerd in Washington, DC, except me. (I has a prior commitment on my schedule.) Of all the speeches given, this one by Free Press's research director Derek Turner, caught my eye because it captures the history of telecommunications and competition over the last several years.

At Sprint, we don't agree with everything Derek said here, but we do agree with his conclusions about why the FCC should act to fix the wireless backhaul market.

What's wireless backhaul you ask? Here's a quick explantion. Most people don't realize that the only wireless part of a mobile phone call is that part where you handset transmits your call to the nearest cell phone tower. The rest of the conversation travels over a wireline network. Moving your wireless call across a wireline (or landline) network is what we call wireless backhaul. (Wireless backhaul is also called "special access" or "the middle mile.")

Because they have territorial monopolies, Verizon and AT&T don't compete with each other to provide wireless backhaul to cell phone companies. In fact they really don't compete with anyone. In the top 50 metro areas where Verizon has a territorial monopoly, it controls more than 90% of the wireless backhaul market in that area. (The same can be said for AT&T.)

Verizon and AT&T can do this because the FCC prematurely deregulated the market for the circuits used to provide backhaul before there was any evidence of signinificant competition. Guess what happened after the FCC deregulated? The landline companies like AT&T and Verizon jacked up their prices considerably. Verizon has markups that are 700% over cost in some areas according to Free Press.

Go to minute 12:47 in this video to hear what Derek has to say about backhaul. He explains it better than I can.

Maybe this BBC story is a sign of just how excited the world is about the Palm Pre. BTW, the touchstone charger is £45. ;-)

On Friday, four senior leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (Reps. Henry Waxman, John Dingell, Ed Markey and Rick Boucher) sent a very cordial letter to Michael Copps, the Acting Chairman of the FCC. seeking information about a complicated regulatory process call forbearance petitions.

Did I lose you now? Are you scratching your head?

Bear with me.

Several years ago, Congress established a process where certain regulated phone companies could file a formal request at the FCC to ask that the Commission no longer enforce certain regulatory requirements. The prevailing notion at the time was, the less regulation, the better for all concerned.

The lawyers call these requests "forbearance petitions". The idea is to set a basketball shot clock of sorts on the FCC to act on these requests. Basically the phone companies ask for regulatory relief and the FCC has X amount of time to decide whether or not the petition is approved.

Here's where this gets tricky.

If the FCC misses that deadline and the shot clock runs out, the request is automatically approved.

In theory, that made sense, but in practice, the landline phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and Qwest have showered the FCC with these forbearance petitions. Because there are so many petitions, it's sometimes difficult for the FCC, which is a relatively small agency, to give these documents a thorough reading.

What makes a difficult process harder is what Verizon recently did. At the last minute, just before the FCC was prepared to act on its forbearance petition, Verizon pulled the petition from review.

In other words, the FCC spent a great deal of time and money reviewing Verizon's request only to have the company change its mind at the last minute. Verizon, for its part, didn't offer much of an explanation for its regulatory cold feet at the forbearance altar. They claimed that the petitions were no longer needed because a court was expected to rule in the matter in a few weeks.

But the Wall Street Journal (http://bit.ly/7pFur) wrote that Verizon pulled the petition because Verizon expected the FCC would reject their request.

In that story, Acting FCC Chairman Copps said, "It just doesn't seem to be the way policy should be made. If somebody sees maybe it's going in the wrong direction, they can just say, 'Well, thanks. I'm outta here.'"

At Sprint, we're closely following this policy debate because we've opposed many of these forbearance petitions filed by the landline phone companies. These regulations are put in place to promote competition and to protect consumers. Often, we believe that removing the regulations will have the opposite effect.

We'll see what the FCC has to say to the Congressmen.

This morning Sprint announced the availability of a solar powered cell phone charger. That's pretty cool, I think.

This is part of a larger effort we're making to offer customers more eco-friendly options. We're also working to change the way we do business to lower our energy consumption and recycle more phones. (Right now, we have a recycle rate of about 35% and we've set the goal to raise that to 90% by 2017. We'll need your help to get there though.)

To learn more about what we're up to, visit www.sprint.com/green. On Twitter, you may also want to follow @sprintgreennews on Twitter.