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FCC Sides With Google Fiber Over Comcast With New Pro-Competition Rule (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission today approved new rules that could let Google Fiber and other new [ISPs] gain faster access to utility poles. The FCC's One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) rules will let companies attach wires to utility poles without waiting for the other users of the pole to move their own wires. Google Fiber says its deployment has stalled in multiple cities because Comcast and AT&T take a long time to get poles ready for new attachers. One Touch Make Ready rules let new attachers make all of the necessary wire adjustments themselves. Comcast urged the FCC to "reject 'one-touch make-ready' proposals, which inure solely to the benefit of new entrants while unnecessarily risking harm to existing attachers and their customers." FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rejected this argument, saying that startups are unnecessarily delayed when they have to wait for incumbent ISPs before hanging wires. Here's what Pai had to say: "For a competitive entrant, especially a small company, breaking into the market can be hard, if not impossible, if your business plan relies on other entities to make room for you on those poles. Today, a broadband provider that wants to attach fiber or other equipment to a pole first must wait for, and pay for, each existing attacher to sequentially move existing equipment and wires. This can take months, and the bill for multiple truck rolls adds up. For companies of any size, pole-attachment problems represent one of the biggest barriers to broadband deployment."
For once anyways.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I feel dirty. Good for him though; I guess they're really trying to make good on that whole expand competition thing.
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... About now is a good time to realize that world isn't fucked up beyond recognition. We take steps forward and back all the time. Let's celebrate that the FCC took a huge step forward. They've done enough back steps recently...
The solution to net neutrality is more ISP competition.
"Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
...just where is the real Ajit Pai and what have you done with him?
What are you doing? First you vote against the Sinclair-Tribune merger and now you side with Google.
Stop trying to make me like you.
Zebras don't change their stripes. Ajit Pai is an asshole, clearly and objectively, therefore Google must have bribed him in some way to get this 'ruling'. The question remains: how much?
In Comcast vs. Google the GOP has no predetermined outcome. Both companies are not considered friendly to their interests.
Maybe he might be wrong about one thing, but not other things? How is this possible???
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Don't worry - Pai isn't suddenly getting a conscience. Remember that Pai is basically beholden to Verizon (where he will end up at after his "public service"). Verizon is not a wireline provider (like AT&T, Comcast, Cox etc...) When 5g starts to roll out, one of the key battles is going to be over telephone poles. There are going to be tens of thousands of mini-cells mounted on poles to support this rollout - and if you don't own the poles (like Verizon), you're going to be at a disadvantage compared to the companies who do (like AT&T)
This vote isn't pro-internet or pro-freedom or anti-monopoly - it's entirely about ensuring that Verizon isn't at a competitive disadvantage in rolling out their 5g network.
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
Then the dingaling for New Guy Cable is gonna get sued, and almost certainly lose, and New Guy Cable is going to pay (unless the dingaling was really stupid with his contract) and fire the dingaling, thus eliminating one incompetent contractor.
What if the dingaling for New Guy Cable causes an outage for my whole neighborhood
How about holding the new Guy responsible to repair or pay for repairing the damage when they do that ?
In most cases the people running lines for New Guy Cable will have former employees of the Incumbent cable provider, or may even be the same contractors that the incumbent provider uses; so the only question then is about shady contractors who screw something up ----- which can happen even if they don't use the poles and decide on directional drilling instead -- This is why permitting is required, and if the contractor starts causing too much disruption, the municipality can order them to pause or suspend their activities for a time, until what's going wrong can be investigated.
By the way, I believe if the incumbents are THAT concerned, they have the opportunity to do the work themselves, if they don't delay ---- the problem is those arseholes use delaying tactics to try and stop new competition coming in.
there is a fairly large risk to have someone move someone else's equipment and/or wires .... doesn't have the same training, or cuts corners, and messes something up
Either you haven't investigated this or you're spreading FUD. The OTMR rules require the utility pole owners to designate qualified contractors to do the work. Only these contractors are eligible to move or add anything. The poles won't be swarmed by unaccountable bozos wrecking everything.
With change comes risk. Try not to be a sackless coward, prattling on about the parade of horribles inside your head. They're just wires on poles. We can cope with them as we have for 150+ years now. The only actual problem with any of this is that it's at least twenty years overdue.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
There is absolutely no reason why telecom companies should own poles within cities/states/country limits. These should be owned and maintained by the city, in order to let any who wish to make use of the poles, actually use them without having to pay extra fees to a company that would be their main competitor.
Why am I in hell, and why is it so damned cold?
THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!
...and if you don't own the poles (like Verizon)...
Verizon, the telephone company, does not own telephone poles? That seems...wrong.
To be fair, they own a lot less than they used to.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
And the representative from Comcast appears...
Well I think its fair to allow them to move lines if the incumbent decides to drag their feet on purpose.
What if the dingaling for New Guy Cable causes an outage for my whole neighborhood
How about holding the new Guy responsible to repair or pay for repairing the damage when they do that ?
So New Guy Cable installer causes an outage. This forces Incumbent to spend money fixing it, maybe lost revenue when pay-per-view users cannot view what they want to pay for. Then Incumbent has to not only prove that New Cable installer moved their stuff, but that he broke it when he did. It goes to court, it takes years to resolve. In the meantime, New Cable goes bankrupt because they didn't get enough subs and they have to pay a bunch of lawyers to defend them.
You WANT to create a system where the only people who win are the lawyers, and everyone else loses?
By the way, I believe if the incumbents are THAT concerned, they have the opportunity to do the work themselves, if they don't delay
It could be extremely costly for an incumbent to have to hire a contractor on short notice, and a lot of such infrastructure work is done by contractors.
Let's put it in a standard analogy form. Would you be happy if someone wanted to park in the space your car is located and he could just move your car out of the way on his own? Or closer to the actual circumstances -- you parked too close to the line in your space, and instead of waiting for you to move your car someone else could hire a tow truck to move you?
Comcast will just cut their competitors' cables anyway.
FC Closer
Pretty sure Verizon is focused on doing wireless service now and any physical lines they would love to just do away with.
Probably because the incumbents have been treating a public right-of-way that they have been graciously permitted to use as if it was their own private property. If you leave your bike in the common hallway, eventually someone will move it out back against the wall.
While it makes sense to reduce the amount of people touching the infrastructure, the telecom companies seem to have considered delay as an entry barrier. This decision is what they deserve.
Low-frequency 5G (which Verizon and T-Mobile have heavily invested in the past for UHF spectrums) has much larger bandwidth and equal range to 3G and 4G. No way will Verizon set up hundreds of million mini-cells on telephone poles just because. Sure they purchased millimeter wave companies, but that is an entirely different market. 26GHz transmitters in cell phones are going to be bulky and prone to dropouts.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Gee, thanks for your completely reasonable response. hahahahaha. You could have made the same point without being a total ass.
Have a great weekend!
Verizon is working with Spectrum to roll out using their fiber, poles, and outdoor wifi in all areas for the "5g" service.
You think the incumbents don't have standing contracts with the contractors that do the work? Do you think they don't have "on call" technicians? Do you think they have no outage emergency plans? Because they do. They have all of those. And some like COX even has their OWN installers and techs, they ALSO have standing contracts with multiple companies. Same with Century Link.
Pai's overlord Verizon needs this for 5G cell rollouts so this makes sense. I'm sure he'll find a way to prevent Google and newcomers from benefitting.
You think the incumbents don't have standing contracts with the contractors that do the work?
I didn't say that.
Do you think they don't have "on call" technicians?
I didn't say that, either.
Do you think they have no outage emergency plans? Because they do.
I didn't say they don't. Sheesh, three for three. What's next?
Now, what you don't seem to understand is that those "emergency outage" protocols COST MONEY and TAKE TIME. I spoke about money and time.
And some like COX even has their OWN installers and techs,
"They may have. Probably do. They have daily operations staff. Fixing a broken main feed is not an "installer and tech" job.
Do you have something to argue with me about something I actually said?
"They may have. Probably do. They have daily operations staff. Fixing a broken main feed is not an "installer and tech" job.
Its a damn coaxial cable. i know children that can fix them.. and as far as fiber goes, you would be surprised how easy that is now a days and who you can teach to do it. as for my original comment, i was being snide about the fact that you seemed to think that they dont have any emergency procedures in place, i can be an asshole sometimes even when i dont try.