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AT&T Admits Defeat In Lawsuit It Filed To Stall Google Fiber (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the winning-and-defeating dept.

According to Ars Technica, AT&T is reportedly abandoning its attempt to stop a Louisville ordinance that helped draw Google Fiber into the city. The telecommunications giant sued Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky to stop an ordinance that gives Google Fiber and other ISPs faster access to utility poles. AT&T's lawsuit was dismissed in August by a district court, who determined that AT&T's claims that the ordinance is invalid are false. WDRB News and Louisville Business First are both reporting that AT&T has decided not to appeal the ruling.

34 comments

  1. No Need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google is abandoning fiber. No need for AT&T to waste money on lawsuits.

    1. Re:No Need by TWX · · Score: 1

      But did Google abandon it because, at least in part, lawsuits from entities like AT&T?

      I am disappointed that they stopped. I want my singlemode fiber dammit.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:No Need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are two project states at Google (and they often overlap):
      - In beta
      - Being shutdown with little notice to its users

    3. Re:No Need by TWX · · Score: 1

      I have to admit that I have noticed this with them but had not applied it to Google Fiber since network infrastructure backbone is normally a straightforward and now that singlemode fiber has beat-out copper technologies as the future, fairly stable and somewhat future-proof.

      The fiber plant requires investment. The serious trunk lines have to be bought or built. The last-mile (or several miles) must be built as metro ethernet to the residence hasn't really existed until the last decade. Doing this requires a huge initial investment.

      Thing is, one it's in, it puts the network owner in the same position that Bell was in at the beginning of the copper telephone network, which was eighty years of profitability off of a network that used much of the same technology. Sure, every decade or so the switches and the optics have to be changed out, but once the fiber is there the equipment changes are comparatively simple, and unlike the installation of fiber to every house where it's a special-case to do it, the equipment is standardized and volume purchases result in steep discounts.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    4. Re:No Need by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      Louisville was merely one of the most well known cases of AT&T being dicks, but they were doing it all over the country. It's very likely that they were partially responsible for Google giving up. The other thing that went sideways was the whole alphabet thing, which I think allowed shareholders more control over what Google was doing...probably by the very same people who own AT&T stock and were worried about their "investment".

      I'm just adding them to the list of people to throw against the wall when the day comes. Anyone who stands in the way of progress for any reason at all deserves his space up there.

    5. Re: No Need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They abandoned fiber when the FCC told them that could no longer use internet traffic monitoring to target ads to the end customer. Your bias for net neutrality and privacy protection laws had a bigger impact.

    6. Re:No Need by leonbev · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Kinda clever when you think about it... AT&T and the other telcos win by basically stopping Google from expanding their Fiber to other markets, and then cancel their lawsuits saying that they felt "defeated".

      I think that most competitive businesses would happily take that kind of "defeat".

    7. Re:No Need by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      Are they abandoning it? I just got a flyer advertising Google Fiber in my mail slot the other day. I would think that means they intend to support what they have for awhile, even if they're not building any new stuff.

      OTOH, it IS google.

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    8. Re:No Need by Slashdot+Junky · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't forget that progress is subjective and change for the sake of change isn't a smart approach. AT&T was and is only protecting their revenue stream and access to profit. Google was investing in hopes of establishing a profit generating revernue stream. Neither give a shit about progress.

      --
      .
      Landfill Mining Co.
      Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
    9. Re:No Need by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      In this case their revenue stream was in the way of progress, and Google's investment was in support of it. And unquestionably access to higher bandwidth networking is supporting progress. Don't be a tool.

    10. Re: No Need by swillden · · Score: 1

      They abandoned fiber when the FCC told them that could no longer use internet traffic monitoring to target ads to the end customer.

      Cite? Everything I'd seen from Google Fiber, from the beginning, is that they were explicitly not monitoring traffic.

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    11. Re:No Need by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      They scaled back the effort because it was much more difficult than expected and they are losing money on it. They found out they couldn't 'disrupt' fiber into the ground and that it's expensive to provide support for thousands of residential customers. They proved their point and scared a few of their competitors into moving forward with fiber rollout, in most cases more effectively than G-Fs.

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    12. Re: No Need by igjeff · · Score: 1

      Google hasn't abandoned fiber. They're throwing it into the ground here in Louisville faster than they ever have anywhere.

      They have rethought how they use it a bit, but to say that they have completely abandoned it is just not true.

  2. Warms one's heart by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Using the court system as a stalling tactic instead of righting a wrong. Yer right up there with Patent Trolls AT&T.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Warms one's heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now they need to sue ATT for damages.

    2. Re:Warms one's heart by Zaelath · · Score: 2

      That should be a class action suit by their own customers.

    3. Re:Warms one's heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Using the court system as a stalling tactic instead of righting a wrong. Yer right up there with Patent Trolls AT&T.

      Breaking up AT&T was a heck of a good idea when it happened, and now it is an even better idea.

      We need to get back to breaking up monopolies, and that goes doubly so far laws and such that promote monopolies.

    4. Re:Warms one's heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using the court system as a stalling tactic instead of righting a wrong.

      Silly human, endangering a person's profits is exactly the type of wrong that the court system is focused on righting.

    5. Re:Warms one's heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about we just storm their fortress and free the prisoners from the Bastille?

    6. Re:Warms one's heart by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      AT&T is second in evilness only to oil companies. They are scum through and through. Patent trolls only wish they could be as shit to people as AT&T.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Warms one's heart by fibonacci8 · · Score: 1

      My calendar is free on the 14th of July...

      --
      Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
    8. Re:Warms one's heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would be surprised if Comcast's service contract didn't include a clause forbidding class action suits, instead requiring that all suits be conducted via small claims or arbitration.

    9. Re:Warms one's heart by Megane · · Score: 1

      Remember that the lowercase "at&t" we have now was originally one of the baby bells (Southwestern Bell), which slowly bought back all the other bits, except for one or two that are now Verizon (formerly GTE). The building that used to say "SBC Technology Resources Inc." when I worked there for a few months, then SBC Labs, now says AT&T Labs on its sign.

      You can break up a magnet, but its bits eventually stick back to each other.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    10. Re:Warms one's heart by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      AT&T is second in evilness only to oil companies. They are scum through and through. Patent trolls only wish they could be as shit to people as AT&T.

      Um um um... not to argue, but I'd put Comcast a little ahead of AT&T. Otherwise, sure.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    11. Re:Warms one's heart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Run it anyway. Mass at the courthouse on the appointed day and point out openly in court that you have the numbers to vote your own judge in in the next election if he dismisses the lawsuit.

  3. no...not defeat...just ran out the clock by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    Google gave up on fiber

    1. Re:no...not defeat...just ran out the clock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not exactly - rollout can take 24 months or longer with the politics involved.

    2. Re:no...not defeat...just ran out the clock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google's motto: Beta is the new Gold.

    3. Re: no...not defeat...just ran out the clock by igjeff · · Score: 1

      For "gave up on fiber" they sure are throwing it in the ground here in Louisville at a ferocious rate.

      Hint: they didn't totally give up on fiber, just kinda rethought it a bit (using micro-trenching now heavily), and never pulled back their deployment process here in Louisville at all.

  4. Didn't they get what they wanted? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google Fiber's national rollout has been stopped. It seems like the Louisville one was either scaled back or cancelled, and most of the other Google Fiber projects were dropped altogether.

    Isn't that a win for AT&T even if the particular ordinance was ruled against them?

    Enough money can even cripple a billion dollar competitor, and they can always just jack up the rates on people in their 'firmly controlled' regions to offset the costs.

    1. Re:Didn't they get what they wanted? by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 2

      Maybe not. One of the big reasons Google stopped the fiber roll-out was because of the constant stonewalling of companies like AT&T when it came to letting Google run cable on the utility poles. If municipalities are able to push back against the incumbent telecomms and cable companies and make it easier and faster for new companies to get fiber on the poles, Google may get back in the game. Wireless had some advantages, but it's also got some major disadvantages in built-up areas where spectrum and tower space are at a premium and fiber's needed for transceiver backhaul anyway.

    2. Re:Didn't they get what they wanted? by shentino · · Score: 1

      Honestly I think Google getting caught up in those politics is the best thing that can happen to internet in america.

      Apart from companies like Spectrum majorly boosting their bandwidth, we now have sleazebags like AT&T exposed. Awareness of the politics is rising, and a very uncomfortable spotlight is being shined on incumbent telecoms, and the publicity from high profile court cases is like fresh sunshine against the undead hordes of telecoms trying to cling to the horse and buggy whip.

      Google Fiber was intended to boost internet in america, and whether it does that by building fiber, or by lighting a fire under the asses of the incumbents, or by having itself become a martyr to economic politics, I'm happier either way.

    3. Re:Didn't they get what they wanted? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would happily pay my current cable rates to Google for Google Fiber. Not having to deal with Comcast's crap service would be worth it.

  5. AT&T... by gatfirls · · Score: 1

    The Menedez twins of telecom.