AT&T's Trying to Kill Real Broadband Competition in Kentucky Kentucky is one of many states tired of incumbent broadband providers with no incentive to compete or improve local service. In Kentucky, the state is trying to do something about this via the $232 million public-private partnership known as KentuckyWired. KentuckyWired will largely be operated by a private company, but will be publicly owned and operated under an open-access model whereby ISPs come in and compete for the public's attention in all 120 Kentucky counties.

quote: AT&T has filed a protest over the state’s process for awarding school Internet service contracts, many of which it now has...The telecoms are getting backup from libertarian advocacy groups that object on principle to government-owned broadband networks. A common thread among these groups is that they have received money from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who have given hundreds of millions of dollars to politicians and advocacy groups to try to limit government’s power to regulate, tax and provide public services. AT&T and friends' effort may be too little too late; network construction is well underway, and plans call for it to be completed statewide by the end of 2018. While AT&T had a good fifteen year run stifling these kinds of projects with actually trying to do so. Needless to say, this idea terrifies incumbent broadband providers like AT&T, which have grown used to a lack of broadband competition, thanks in large part to their political influence on most state legislatures.As such, the company has joined forces with an assortment of Koch-brother-funded PR tendrils to try and derail the project, arguing that the public/private cooperative effort would duplicate AT&T's existing (frequently incredibly expensive ) offerings, especially of the educational variety:AT&T and friends' effort may be too little too late; network construction is well underway, and plans call for it to be completed statewide by the end of 2018. While AT&T had a good fifteen year run stifling these kinds of projects with awful state-level protectionist law , as the company continues hanging up on unwanted DSL customers it's having a harder and harder time convincing angry states that AT&T should be allowed to simultaneously fail to deliver next-gen broadband, yet dictate terms to those







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Most recommended from 52 comments

strange_69

join:2001-08-07

Ridgecrest, CA ·Sidewinder Netwo..

22 recommendations strange_69 Member As a conservative... RANT ON:



As a conservative I am usually against "Big Government" but I do understand that there are times when the government needs to step in. This is one of those times. There is literally no competition. Verizon, AT&T, Comcast etc... have cornered the market for their territories and have set up their monopolies. It is a racket. There are just a few companies that have divided up their territories and are now sitting back and screwing their customers because the customers have no place to go. They claim that there is competition but how would things look if this competition was "filtered" with the FCC's definition of broadband? You would see islands of high speed internet with very little overlap. I am ashamed of the GOP for defending this system. I have not voted for a couple of years and will only vote this year for a candidate that I don't particularity like just to stick it in the RNC's eye.



RANT OFF

Flyonthewall

@teksavvy.com 16 recommendations Flyonthewall Anon Gov exists to assist the public in enriching their life It's not their job to ensure companies have geographic entrapment of the population to enable price controls. People poo-poo about socialism, but the opposite of that is profit at any expense, which is what the US has become now. Nothing more than a giant pirate ship complete with plank, and captain ready to look the other way for the right price.

TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA 3 recommendations TIGERON Member Good for Kentucky. And screw you Randall Stephenson.

gadawg

join:2006-01-27

Louisville, KY ·AT&T U-Verse

ARRIS BGW210-700

1 edit 2 recommendations gadawg Member News to me I've lived in Louisville for 14 years and haven't heard about this before now. I'm surprised there wasn't talk of this when Google announced they were considering Louisville for gigabit service. It sounds like a good idea if the fiber is available to every home and it is properly managed and maintained.