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Comcast Sues Nashville To Halt Rules That Give Google Fiber Faster Access To Utility Poles (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast yesterday sued the Nashville metro government and mayor to stop a new ordinance designed to give Google Fiber faster access to utility poles. Comcast's complaint in U.S. District Court in Nashville (full text) is similar to one already filed by AT&T last month. Both ISPs are trying to invalidate a One Touch Make Ready ordinance that lets new ISPs make all of the necessary wire adjustments on utility poles themselves instead of having to wait for incumbent providers like AT&T and Comcast to send work crews to move their own wires. The ordinance was passed largely to benefit Google Fiber, which is offering service in Nashville but says that it hasn't been able to deploy faster because it is waiting to get access to thousands of poles. Nearly all the Nashville utility poles are owned either by the municipal Nashville Electric Service or AT&T. Because Comcast has wires on many of the poles, it has some control over how quickly Google Fiber can expand its network. When Google Fiber wants to attach wires to a new pole, it needs to wait for ISPs like Comcast to move their wires to make room for Google Fiber's. The Nashville One Touch Make Ready ordinance "permits third parties to move, alter, or rearrange components of Comcast's communications network attached to utility poles without Comcast's consent, authorization, or oversight, and with far less notice than is required by federal law and by an existing Comcast contract with Metro Nashville," Comcast's complaint said. Comcast asked the court to declare the ordinance invalid and permanently enjoin Nashville from enforcing it. The pre-existing Make Ready process "seek[s] to ensure that all providers can share available pole space cooperatively and safely, without interfering with or damaging any provider's equipment or services," Comcast said. The new procedures mandated by Nashville "are so intrusive that, tellingly, Metro Nashville has wholly exempted its own utility pole attachments from the Ordinance's coverage." Even though Google Fiber announced yesterday that it will pause operations and cut 9% of its staff, the ISP said it would continue operations in Nashville.
The world would be such a better place if Comcast wasn't an ISP.
Comcast says they'll do some adjustments. Ooops. They forgot. No wait, they did another pole. No, not that one, the other one. Whups, we were confused, we only thought we sent somebody out. Don't worry, give us another six months!
This is the second time today I've ask "If not even Google can compete w/ Comcast what chance to mere mortals have?"
From the article: The Nashville One Touch Make Ready ordinance "permits third parties to move, alter, or rearrange components of Comcast’s communications network attached to utility poles without Comcast’s consent, authorization, or oversight, and with far less notice than is required by federal law and by an existing Comcast contract with Metro Nashville,"
Any surprise here?
I can agree that Comcast is suing Nashville because it would allow a 3rd party to just mess with their equipment. IE: Jump a few months down the road when the 3rd party severs a line and has an undefined number of Comcast subscribers without TV and Internet for X number of days. I see why they want to avoid this. But the other part of me knows they just don't want to deal with Competition.
Nashville Electric Service is a fascinating entity. It is technically owned by the Metro Nashville, which is the merger of old Nashville city proper and Davidson County, yet it serves areas outside Nashville. For example, I was on NES despite living in an adjacent county when I lived in the area. I did not know at the time it was owned by the city, with a board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the metro board (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Electric_Service). That makes a lot of sense in this context, since the city then technically "owns" all the NES poles in the city as well. The status of AT&T (previously BellSouth, previously AT&T) poles would be debatable, since utility poles are somewhat...odd...assets. They can be owned by the locality outright, owned by the utility outright, owned by the locality but leased by the utility, etc... I'm curious to see how this plays out for the legal aspects, far more than because it involves Google Fiber.
Nashville could Use It to take over the poles
- the last time somebody tried taking over the poles like that the entire world went to war for 5 years or so, not the greatest idea...
MY OTHER COMMENTS
Nashville could Use It to take over the poles
- the last time somebody tried taking over the poles like that the entire world went to war for 5 years or so, not the greatest idea...
Well done. I wish I had mod points.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
All you have to do is let the incumbent monopoly move their wires themselves, for the competition, before the independent contractor is scheduled to do it. But, oddly enough, they've been dragging their feet, almost as if they want to hurt their competition. So let them have to do it quickly if they want to do it themselves.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Is comcast stalling work on purpose?
You win the indignant clueless person award. Yes, Comcast has been trying to deny access to public property to their competitors, just because they parked some equipment there first. For months and months.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
> They have enough money,
No, they don't.
Today it would cost trillions in construction, labor, parts, assessments, lobbyists, bribes, etc. to build a new network of utility poles/pipes/conduit/etc. rivaling what the entrenched telecoms have near-exclusive access to.
AT&T and Comcast have both had 20 years, *two* decades, an *entire generation* to roll out their own fiber, but they didn't, because they're a monopoly and fark you, you miserable customer. And during that 20 years, the only thing they had to worry about was making sure our state lawmakers were given enough bribes, whiskey, hookers, and blow to tow the company line.
Then Google Fiber comes to town, and now that they're doing AT&T/Comcast's job better than AT&T/Comcast ever did, suddenly it's DerpCon 1. They know that as a natural monopoly, there is only going to be *one* broadband utility when the dust settles. And they're doing everything in their power (short of actually getting off their ass and running their own fiber) to stop Google.
If you look in the dictionary under "regulatory capture", it has a photograph of Tennessee's legislature. Our elected fuckwits used their usual Underpants Gnomes logic:
1) Block cities/co-ops from competing with AT&T/Comcast
2) ???
3) Vigorous competition and fiber everywhere!
By a complete coincidence, campaign contributions from ISP's increased by a factor of 100x (not 100%, 100 *TIMES*) that year.
If any of the crew from /r/nashville is here, please share our warm feelings about Comcast and Marsha Blackburn...
A quick google search shows nothing about this lawsuit on nbc.com or msnbc.com or nbcnews.com one example. https://www.google.com/search?...
But they are reporting on executives leaving google fiber.
Metro Nashville has wholly exempted its own utility pole attachments from the Ordinance's coverage
This will make it difficult to argue there is no problem with the practice.
If Comcast is so worried about Google touching their junk, why not legislate an aggressive SLA that requires Comcast to respond to Google's requests in a specified period of time, after which Google can go ahead without Comcast's assistance?
Why not just append a reasonable grace period. Call it 30-days for the sake of argument.
Google Fiber requests that Comcast "move, alter, or rearrange" the following cables : blah blah blah.
Once the grace period has elapsed, if the moves have not been completed, Google is free and clear to move them (while assuming all responsibility for damages incurred, obviously)
This signature is false.
Smart by Google. They pulled an Apple. Do whatever they want, let others sue them. Continue doing what they want with the position"let's see how this plays out in court". By the time there's a judgement, 5 years down the road they'll have everything installed.
Since when do we allow big business to act against against what is best for the people? Competition is good.
Comcast is consistently rated one of the most hated companies in America.
I wish I could get at least closer options from ANYONE else.... Just yesterday I received a letter in the mail from comcast. They're throttling my account to 1TB per month or pay an extra $50 per month for unlimited internet.... I ALREADY PAID FOR UNLIMITED INTERNET!! That was the option I selected just 2 years ago when I moved into my house. I already pay $150/mo for basic cable + internet, now the vultures want another $50... I have 3 teens at home plus a VPN for work, I push that cap. We need serious legal reform. It's pathetic the country that invented the internet has the worst service of civilized countries.
How many cheering this on are in the AirBnB thread cheering on NYC using laws to protect the entrenched interests.
Oh, right. That's different, because Comcast's arguments are transparently self-serving.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.