Muni Fiber and Politics

Mon Jul 21 17:29:08 UTC 2014

Seems like as good at time as any for Netflix to go distributed peer to peer.

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 11:13 AM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> Is anyone else cynical enough to say FiOS going symmetrical is an attempt to
> blunt the pro-NetFlix argument on that point?
> - jra
>
>
>
> On July 21, 2014 12:46:27 PM EDT, Jason Iannone <jason.iannone at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> There was a muni case in my neck of the woods a couple of years ago.
>> Comcast spent an order of magnitude more than the municipality but
>> still lost.
>>
>> Anyway, follow the money.  "Blackburn’s largest career donors are ..
>> PACs affiliated with AT&T ... ($66,750) and Comcast ... ($36,600). ...
>> Blackburn has also taken $56,000 from the National Cable &
>> Telecommunications Association."
>>
>>
>> http://www.muninetworks.org/content/media-roundup-blackburn-amendment-lights-newswires
>>
>> In other news, FIOS has gone symmetrical.
>>
>> http://newscenter.verizon.com/corporate/news-articles/2014/07-21-fios-upload-speed-upgrade/
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 8:20 AM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>  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
>>>  Ashworth & Associates       http://www.bcp38.info          2000 Land
>>> Rover DII
>>>  St Petersburg FL USA      BCP38: Ask For It By Name!           +1 727
>>> 647 1274
>
>
> --
> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.