For Google Fiber to have been successful, Google would have had to overturn countless local laws (paid for by the ISPs) that granted the one who laid down the lines a monopoly on their use. So even if Google had won it would have been a net win for customers, as it would have paved the way for local ISPs to compete with the national ones.
I thought their issue was with one-touch make-ready rules on the phone poles. You had to wait for legacy users to move their lines up the pole before Google’s could be added to the bottom. And legacy users had absolutely no incentive to hurry since completing the work means helping add another competitor in the area.
Most of every single fight was at the municipality or city level and not any larger than that. So while those companies may have had holds over that community in particular, those companies are not national companies like Google is. Sure if Google was able to change all those laws that could be a win but we all know they wouldn’t stop there, and it would be less than a year before a very similar law would probably go up across the board. And you know it would pass cuz all they would have to say is “hey government want to take a looksies? Just make sure to pass this bill we wrote for ya”
Honestly, im not terribly upset they are getting blocked. The last thing we need is google truly breaking into the utility market nationally
For Google Fiber to have been successful, Google would have had to overturn countless local laws (paid for by the ISPs) that granted the one who laid down the lines a monopoly on their use. So even if Google had won it would have been a net win for customers, as it would have paved the way for local ISPs to compete with the national ones.
I thought their issue was with one-touch make-ready rules on the phone poles. You had to wait for legacy users to move their lines up the pole before Google’s could be added to the bottom. And legacy users had absolutely no incentive to hurry since completing the work means helping add another competitor in the area.
Most of every single fight was at the municipality or city level and not any larger than that. So while those companies may have had holds over that community in particular, those companies are not national companies like Google is. Sure if Google was able to change all those laws that could be a win but we all know they wouldn’t stop there, and it would be less than a year before a very similar law would probably go up across the board. And you know it would pass cuz all they would have to say is “hey government want to take a looksies? Just make sure to pass this bill we wrote for ya”