  Fiber to the Home (FTTH) describes a set of emerging technologies with the
potential to affect competition in local access. On one hand, the high cost of
deploying fiber to the residence suggests limitations on facilities-based
competition among FTTH networks. On the other hand, FTTH opens up new
possibilities for service-level competition, defined as the sharing of a single
network infrastructure by multiple higher-layer service providers, whether of
the same or different services. Yet technology is hardly an exogenous factor
that independently shapes future local access competition; the regulatory
environment also plays a key role. By shaping expectations about future
competitive requirements, current regulations influence network operators'
deployment choices among competing FTTH technologies, as well as design choices
made by vendors and standards bodies for technologies still under
development.The current regulatory approach to FTTH is far from consistent.
Network operators likely to deploy FTTH include Incumbent Local Exchange
Carriers (ILECs), incumbent cable operators, competitive access providers
(including CLECs), independent telephone companies, and municipalities. This
paper reviews the rules related to service-level competition that apply to each
of these categories. In essence, the paper finds that if current regulatory
trends continue, asymmetries in the regulation of service-level competition
will be on steroids by the time FTTH starts being more commonly deployed.
Current regulatory requirements are either non-existent, or extremely detailed
and technology- and service- specific (e.g. UNEs). We argue that neither of
these approaches is likely to achieve the desired result for FTTH, given the
current state of flux in emerging FTTH technology.
