PAETEC CEO: 'We Need to Work Better Together'

"We need to work better together," said Arunas Chesonis, CEO of PAETEC Communications Inc., in his keynote yesterday, addressing an audience of competitive providers.

"We are just a small part of the telecom universe," he said. "We should do more work together. ...We are not each other's real competition."

Chesonis, who has been in the spotlight lately because of PAETEC's pending merger with US LEC, said CLECs should sell networks to each other to help strengthen the competitive market as a whole.

He also encouraged competitors to step back and "look at the big picture." He said this is particularly true of lobbying efforts. "We need to focus at a macro level," he said. "The only way it can happen is by being engaged as officers" of the companies.

He challenged competitors to educate and mobilize customers and employees to help send a message to Congress that access to incumbent networks is key to long-term survival for competitors.

He said leaders must resist the urge to gloss over their challenges in trying not to dampen renewed enthusiasm for competitive business models among the investment community.

"The last mile is what's going to prevent a lot of us from doing what we want to. ... One thing that would help us is if we are going to ask incumbents for access, we need to provide that same unbundled access to them."

Earl Comstock, president and CEO of COMPTEL, said Chesonis' comments in a high-profile forum reflected discussions at yesterday's CEO Council meeting and were a "tremendous help" to the association's efforts on behalf of the competitive industry. "It's indicative of a conversation that's going on among senior executives," he said, noting that the "co-opetition" concept is beginning to be put into practice as it becomes socialized more and more. "It's a dialog that needs to take place."

As reported earlier, Comstock has said one of the goals for COMPTEL is to develop proactive messaging for the membership's lobbying activities in the coming years.

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