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Google Fiber's Latest FCC Filing: Comcast's Nightmare Come To Life
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from BGR: What's every incumbent ISP's worst nightmare? If we had to guess, it looks something like the filing that Google just made with the Federal Communications Commission. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Google this week told the FCC that reclassifying broadband providers under Title II of the Telecommunications Act would have a big side benefit for Google Fiber because it would give Google Fiber the same access to utility poles and other key infrastructure currently enjoyed by Comcast, AT&T and other big-name ISPs.
Where's the monopoly rent in that setup?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Gee... sounds almost like Ma Bell after the breakup.
I'm not being derogatory. Other countries which have similar schemes have better internet for less money than most of the U.S. That's part of what Title II is all about: having a semi-"public" infrastructure, with equal access to it. In other words, actual competition.
REAL proponents of free market capitalism should have no problem with that idea. Those who do are those who either (A) don't understand that currently we have an oligopoly not a free market, or (B) want to protect their privileged position.
then allow various vendors access
Because that would eliminate the monopoly control outfits like Comcast have over the last mile. Cable TV would devolve into each service like HBO having their own streaming site available on the 'Net. And Comcast would have no reason to exist.
It's not like they (Comcast) still don't have a major head start over Google in terms of installed equipment that they could use and go into this same business. But they are too slow to shift their business plan over to the new model. Google knows this and is licking its chops like a tiger watching a crippled deer.
Have gnu, will travel.
... it can only be good for us...
What city do you live in where its acceptable to go 2 months without city provided services? Do you live in some third world country or something? No city thats is going to have fiber is going to behave like that for critical infrastructure.
Heres the reality: The important things get fixed quickly, regardless of how shitty you think you city performs. Your phone gets repaired quickly now not because the phone company wants to, but because they are legally REQUIRED TO ... BECAUSE of the way they are classified. Same goes for power and water. Guess who requires them too ... DA EBIL GUBMENT.
Some things aren't important so going extended periods without fixing them is intelligent management of resources. Sorry the pothole that pisses you off didn't get filled quick enough or the street light that went out takes a while to get repaired, but critical services just don't work that way in any city in America. Villages, maybe. Towns ... not likely. Cities, no fucking way.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Why does anyone have to be classified, by the government, as a provider, under title, yada yada?
Poles, conduits, rights-of-way should belong to the local authority, managed and maintained by the lowest bidding contractor. Anyone or any company then has the right to use, for any commercial or non-commercial purpose, said infrastructure to run their cable or fiber, upon payment of a reasonable fee to cover the upkeep.
I am not a fan of eminent domain, but if the incumbent says "We installed these poles, they belong to us" then they should be bought out.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Back in the 80s and 90s lots of smaller cable companies lobbied local governments and were granted easement access to install their poles, wires, and equipment. Many poles belonged to various utility companies and Ma Bell and access was also negotiated with them. This is a very long process with lots and lots of red tape.
Bigger companies like Comcast bought these smaller companies primarily for these rights. Anywhere smaller companies overlapped the wires were pulled off of poles to prevent any chance of a competitor gaining easy access to these rights. Any new competitor would now need to start from the very beginning like the smaller companies did in the 80s and 90s in obtaining access.
In my city we had a choice of Dimension Cable and Cable America in the 80s and 90s. Both of these smaller companies did all of the busy work for Cox which gobbled both of them up and dismantled the redundant perfectly good infrastructure of Cable America.
Comcast did this on a much larger scale.