Slashdot Mirror
Telco Appeals Minnesota City's Fiber-Optic Win
tsa writes "In a predictable move, TDS Telecom has filed an appeal after its complaint against Monticello, Minnesota's new fiber network was tossed by a county judge in early October. As you may remember, the city decided to build its own fiber-optic network after the telco made it clear they wouldn't build it because it wouldn't be economically feasible for them. TDS Telecom then changed its mind and sued the city for unfair competition."
According to TFA (and TF previous /. stories), they don't have any such agreement. They were suing just to try to stifle competition - ironically because they said such competition was uncompetitive.
If you understand any of that, you may have a future career in law!
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Well, not quite true about the delay at all. The delay period is already over. As soon as the judge made his decision, Minnesota can do anything that they want up to the day of whenever an appeal decision is made. Even if an appeal does favor the shitty telco. Most state constitutions have laws that say things like "if you did something when it was legal, you can't repeal it later".
Expensive and long process? Definitely. Will they put off another city? Not if the appeal fails. In fact, the fact that this article is a slashdot headline indicates that the US is watching, thus the decision will affect other states decisions to build out networks or not. Establishing precedence, etc is a big deal and can occur due to an appeal.
Methinks you want to be more careful with the information you put out.
Having been in the private utility biz, I know better than to say, "Not economically feasible. We're not building it." We always said, "Not at this time, but it is in our long term plans".
Within the territory in which we were franchised to operate, we were required to build out to any customer requesting service. As long as we were compensated for expenses beyond those for which revenue would cover costs. That means, as long as the customer paid the extra cost, it was always economically viable.
Have gnu, will travel.