[173223] in North American Network Operators' Group
Muni Fiber and Politics
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay Ashworth)
Mon Jul 21 10:20:45 2014
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 10:20:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jay Ashworth <jra@baylink.com>
To: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <19855201.6612.1405951988177.JavaMail.root@benjamin.baylink.com>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
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@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
