Comcast Sues Nashville to Slow Google Fiber Comcast has sued the city of Nashville of its utility pole reform plans, in the hopes of slowing Google Fiber's entry in the market. As in Louisville and other locations, Google Fiber has urged cities to reform utility pole attachment process via new "one touch make ready" rules. Under such rules, a single, licensed and insured contractor would be able to move the gear of any ISP, dramatically reducing the time it takes to attach new fiber by as much as eight months.

Under most current pole attachment models, each individual ISP has to sign off on having their gear moved, then get their own technicians or subcontractors out to prepare the pole for fiber attachment by competitors. That can take many months if multiple ISPs are involved, and longer still if those ISPs aren't fond of the threat of added competition, as is the case with Google Fiber. Given they often own many city poles, intentional pole attachment bureaucracy is just one of several ways ISPs make life difficult for new market entrants. The full Comcast complaint (pdf) argues that the city's new reform plan is "unconstitutional," and that the city doesn't have the authority to make these changes to the utility pole attachment process. "Comcast will suffer significant, irreparable injury to its property, operations, and customer relationships," if the reform plans stand, the company claims in the complaint. Comcast has previously tried to claim that one touch make ready reform would increase outages and other system errors by as much as 50%. Google Fiber and its target cities say the licensed and insured workers are often only moving gear a matter of inches, and given they're professionals, disruptions should be minimal. Comcast's lawsuit follows similar lawsuits by AT&T in both Louisville and Nashville. The city, meanwhile, said the reform has broad, significant support among city residents desperately looking for increased broadband competition. "One Touch Make Ready has been litigated in the court of public opinion, and the public overwhelmingly supports this measure designed to speed up the deployment of high-speed fiber in Nashville," the city's office said in a statement. "Now, we hope that this federal litigation is quickly resolved so that we can get on with the business of expanding access to gigabit internet throughout Davidson County." "One Touch Make Ready has been litigated in the court of public opinion, and the public overwhelmingly supports this measure designed to speed up the deployment of high-speed fiber in Nashville," the city's office said in a statement. "Now, we hope that this federal litigation is quickly resolved so that we can get on with the business of expanding access to gigabit internet throughout Davidson County."







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Most recommended from 46 comments

shanghaista

join:2014-08-03

Canton, MA 8 recommendations shanghaista Member Poor Comcast "Comcast will suffer significant, irreparable injury to its property, operations, and customer relationships,"



IRREPARABLE injury to its customer relationships, ya hear? All Google's (or their contractors') fault...or Nashville's...or Louisville's... b10010011

Whats a Posting tag?

join:2004-09-07

Bellingham, WA 3 recommendations b10010011 Member If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em... That's the (Corporate) American way. rody_44

Premium Member

join:2004-02-20

Quakertown, PA 4 edits 2 recommendations rody_44 Premium Member Karl doesnt have his facts correct. Once again. Karl isnt describing exactly how it works. Google is just trying to do this on the cheap. They just want to pay the contractors they use because its cheaper for them to do. In the few cases where the poles need special modifications googles way wont speed up deployment at all. It just means they dont have to pay to have telecommunications own technicians to do the work. I do overbuild work for a living. As is we hang our lines and make temporary connections for their stuff. Google just doesnt want to pay them to do the work.



As a contractor i can assure you this isnt a good thing as im sure not very concerned about someones stuff that isnt paying me. Fios didnt have any issues pretty well wiring the whole east coast of the US under these conditions. I might remind you a hell of a lot faster than google is going.



While google fiber is great. Making special rules for certain companies is what creates true monopolies. When google bails and sells to a for profit company and the competition is left with sub par plant do to these special privileges well i think you see where this ends up. Bottom line is its just to save google money at other companies expense. Sure the electric company doesnt care. Because these techs are NOT allowed to touch there stuff no matter what nashville says. Federal laws wont allow that.