Hello, Kossacks!
So, Google dropped a public comment to the FCC over the New Year's holiday, and it's a shot across the bow of Comcast, AT&T, and their lobbyists in the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the Broadband for America astroturf group, and the other myriad of facilitators of cable company fuckery.
See, part of the reason why Google Fiber is slow to roll out around the country is that it's difficult for Google to get new fiber lines laid in underground conduits, and they aren't guaranteed utility pole access since broadband service isn't considered a utility under the current regulatory scheme. Due to this, they've had to roll out in areas where existing fiber-to-the-home rollouts were already in place and unused.
However, on Tuesday, Google wrote a letter to the FCC touting a "silver lining" to the idea of broadband being reclassified as a Title II communications utility: Google and other companies that registered as broadband providers would be allowed access to utility poles to facilitate rollouts.
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From the article (emphasis mine):
But in a letter Tuesday to the FCC, Google’s director of communications law Austin Schlick highlighted a potential positive for the company if Title II kicks in. As a regulated telecom service, Google Fiber would get access to utility poles and other essential infrastructure owned by utilities. The FCC should make sure this happens because it would promote competition and spur more investment and deployment of broadband internet service, Schlick argued.
Cable and telecom companies, like Comcast and AT&T, have long had the right to access utility poles and other important infrastructure, such as ducts, conduits and rights of way, he noted. Google Fiber, which competes against these companies, has not had this right and the service has had trouble getting access to some poles as it builds out its fiber-optic network to homes.
See, when Google announced back in 2013 that they would be rolling out Google Fiber in Austin,
AT&T denied Google access to utility poles it owned, causing the rollout to be slowed down.
Now, while running fiber-optic cables along poles is not the ideal place for it to be deployed (underground is optimal), there's an enormous benefit to utility pole access in comparison to underground ducts and conduits (emphasis mine):
Hooking up homes using poles is about a tenth of the price of digging trenches across streets and sidewalks, according to Reed Hundt, who was FCC chairman in the 1990s.
The bombshell about this letter by Google comes down to the fact that in May of last year, the CEOs behind the companies that make up the Broadband for America astroturf group stated
that Title II classification would "slow innovation and network upgrades", the exact opposite stance of the companies that actually want to come in and compete with them, but can't!
2015 will be a turning point year in the struggle for an open, neutral Internet and the innovations it allows. As we begin the ramp up to the 2016 elections, remember to keep this vital part of our present and future open, neutral, and on the side of the people rather than the corporations.