Frontier teams with AT&T to block Google Fiber access to utility poles
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/07/frontier-teams-with-att-to-block-google-fiber-access-to-utility-poles/ AT&T is getting some help from Frontier Communications in its attempt to block Google Fiber's progress in Kentucky. Lawsuit could delay Google construction, give AT&T head start in fiber race. As we reported in February, AT&T sued the local government in Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky to stop a new ordinance designed to give Google Fiber and similar companies access to utility poles. Although Frontier has no operations in Kentucky, it submitted a court filing last week supporting AT&T's lawsuit because Frontier is worried such ordinances will come to other states. - - - OK, let's be clear about how crooked this actually is. While the issues of utility access can get numbingly complex at the detailed level, the bottom line is that in most areas, the poles, conduits, property easements, and associated "access apparatus" of utilities were granted many years ago on a monopoly basis, long before new technologies were contemplated. For example, the easement that runs behind my house was created when this area was built up over 50 years ago, and it's through that easement that run the poles carrying power and TWC (now Charter) cable, and in the ground a buried AT&T cable. What we now see repeatedly is legacy dominant firms attempting to leverage those old monopoly grants to block and/or disadvantage modern competition. This is why the USA's Internet access landscape is often categorized as "third world" compared to so many other countries. Unacceptable. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone. _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
