Gigabyte March on Washington

Dear Kevin,

In the headlines:

Verizon Is Rewiring New York, Block by Block, in a Race for Survival, NYT, 8/15/2006 Verizon hopes that replacing its copper phone lines with fiber optic cable will help it fend off rivals like Comcast and Vonage, which are moving into the phone business. NYT article - Verizon Is Rewiring New York, Block by Block, in a Race for Survival

Since the FCC sat on their hands while allowing the VZ forbearance - FCC Press Release to become granted as an operation of law, this truly stinks of antitrust allowed by the FCC.

From within the Verizon War Room: (a hypothetical scenario)

Ok, so let's take over the competition by eliminating them from access (with the help of the our FCC friends) to our "upgraded" system and then further build out the network to eliminate any other enhanced services providers from access to those customers we have market control over. Now once that is done, we go after the Cable'cos and dog fight into a pricing war and market presence to further eliminate competition and gain monopolized market dominance.

Sound like a fair assumption?

Frank Muto

Co-founder - Washington Bureau for ISP Advocacy - WBIA

Telecom Summit Ad Hoc Committee

http://gigabytemarch.blog.com

www.wbia.us

cc:

FCC Commissioners

Michael J. Copps

Jonathan S. Adelstein

Deborah Taylor Tate

Robert M. McDowell

Press Release - PAETEC - USLEC

CHARLOTTE, NC and FAIRPORT, NY - August 14, 2006 - US LEC Corp. (NASDAQ: CLEC), a full-service provider of IP, data and voice solutions to businesses and enterprise organizations throughout the Eastern United States, and PAETEC, a privately-held supplier of communications solutions to medium and large businesses and institutions, announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement to merge the two companies.

On a pro forma basis, the company will generate nearly $1 billion in revenue, $187 million in adjusted EBITDA, and $109 million in free cash flow (adjusted EBITDA minus capital expenditures). Cost saving synergies of $25 million have been identified in the first year after closing, and $40 million annually beginning in 2008. The combined company will have over 45,000 enterprise customers, consisting of medium and large businesses and institutions. It will operate in 52 of the top 100Metropolitan Service Areas (MSAs) in the U.S., with a leading presence in the Eastern U.S., as well as several other major markets across the country.