AT&T Tries to Thwart City's Efforts to Offer 1 Gbps for $40 Over the last thirty years or so AT&T has made it very clear that it absolutely loathes government regulation -- unless that regulation is written by them to protect their duopoly power. Case in point is the city of Chanute, Kansas, which is trying to offer its residents 1 Gbps connections for $40 per month, after years of getting tired of the local AT&T and CableOne duopoly.

Chanute just got done defeating an AT&T-backed and written law that would hinder them from offering services, a protectionist effort that's similar to nearly two dozen passed nationwide. The only hurdle left for Chanute before they can finish their project is a 1947 provision requiring that the town gain approval by the Kansas Corporation Commission before they're allowed to sell bonds to fund their network expansion. Just as the KCC appeared poised to grant this approval, AT&T lawyers stepped in to try and thwart the effort: quote: “Any decision made by the KCC could impact AT&T’s business operations in the area, which is why we asked to intervene in the proceeding,” the company said in a written response to questions from The Eagle. “AT&T remains interested in both broadband issues and the work of the KCC.” Granted this is the same AT&T that has been Granted this is the same AT&T that has been also lobbying the State to gut all KCC authority over AT&T's operations so they can back away from aging DSL markets they don't want to upgrade. In other words, AT&T doesn't want to serve you, but they're fighting to make sure nobody else can serve you either. Why? The company wants to ultimately come back into those areas and sell captive users capped and pricey LTE connections as part of their " IP transition ." This is, AT&T and friends will be quick to tell us, because they just believe it's "unfair" for government to enter the broadband business (but it's fair for AT&T to pay that same government to erode your local rights and to help AT&T to corner the market). Supporters of these laws also breathlessly proclaim they're solely, altruistically concerned with your town or city getting in over their head (your say in the matter apparently doesn't matter). Of course cities like Chanute wouldn't be getting into the broadband business if they were happy with the service they were getting. Chanute's the poster child for the same story playing out in countless towns and cities nationwide. Over the summer FCC boss Tom Wheeler Chanute's the poster child for the same story playing out in countless towns and cities nationwide. Over the summer FCC boss Tom Wheeler made a lot of noise about tackling this issue and pre-empting some of these uglier protectionist laws, but there's been no public traction on the issue since. Preventing giant telecom companies from writing protectionist state law would go a long way toward improving market competition, but it's apparently something we're not serious about fixing anytime soon.







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Most recommended from 41 comments

existenz

join:2014-02-12 4 recommendations existenz Member KCC likely to approve As mentioned, ATT wrote a Bill to prevent muni fiber that did get past KS House but got such a huge public backlash it never made it to the KS Senate. ATT put a really bad taste in KS mouth.



Is pretty sad that our country is often run by corporate lobbyists writing the Bills. Sometimes they are stopped but not often enough.

IPPlanMan

Holy Cable Modem Batman

join:2000-09-20

Washington, DC 2 recommendations IPPlanMan Member Remember, AT&T has a vested interest....



So glad I left the Deathstar... Remember, AT&T puts you first and wants to save you money... That's why they're inserting themselves here to block this....So glad I left the Deathstar... mmay149q

Premium Member

join:2009-03-05

Dallas, TX 2 recommendations mmay149q Premium Member I wish That every city in the US was doing this, and then turned around and sold access to any company wanting in the business, so therefore ATT/Verizon/Comcast/TWC/ETC would all be forced to have to compete with anyone including the community and any mom and pop shops that could get a start on it, talk about a true price competition, could you imagine being a consumer and having 10 or 20 choices instead of 2 or 5 choices at most?



If at least 35% of the country started having this available I'm willing to bet my life that the current ISP's would be expediting their FTTP builds, You'd see AT&T drop U-verse FTTN and start building out FTTP, Verizon would start upgrading their DSL area's to FiOS immediately, TWC/Comcast/Other Cable providers would abandon their copper networks for FTTP, and Google would probably jump in the mix, or start taking advantage of the muni-fiber by trying to partner and utilize the existing network's in place, since they are secretly getting into the content business anyway....



Well I say good luck to the city of Chanute, I hope that this get's approved and the whole city stands outside of the AT&T HQ giving them the finger, this is America, LAND OF THE FREE!!!!! Not Land of the allowed only if AT&T thinks it should be.....