Muni Fiber and Politics

Mon Jul 21 14:20:32 UTC 2014

Over the last decade, 19 states have made it illegal for municipalities
to own fiber networks -- encouraged largely, I am told, by Verizon and 
other cable companies/MSOs[1].

Verizon, of course, isn't doing any new FiOS deployments, per a 2010
press release[2].

FCC Chair Tom Wheeler has been making noises lately that he wants the FCC
to preempt the field on this topic, making such deployments legal.

Congressional Republicans think that's a bad idea:

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/20/5913363/house-republicans-and-obamas-fcc-are-at-war-over-city-owned-internet

[ and here's the backgrounder on the amendment: 

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/blackburn-bill-would-block-fcc-preemption/132468 ]

While I generally try to avoid bringing up topics on NANOG that are political;
this one seems to be directly in our wheelhouse, and unavoidably political.
My apologies in advance; let's all try to be grownups, shall we?

Cheers,
-- jra

[1] http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hundreds-of-cities-are-wired-with-fiberbut-telecom-lobbying-keeps-it-unused
[2] https://secure.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Again-Confirms-FiOS-Expansion-is-Over-118949
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
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