4 ms·

I understand where you are coming from, but you must be blind to think that the biggest issue facing the American telecom industry is service disruption due to

I understand where you are coming from, but you must be blind to think that the biggest issue facing the American telecom industry is service disruption due to competitors having too much access to the utility poles. While you are right that this does create a bigger opportunity for small service disruptions, the bigger issue is that even when its not disrupted service in many area's is horrible, and expensive. While a private company might have paid to put the poles in they should be treated like the shared limited resource that they are, and there should be universally accepted rules on how the current "owner" has to allow other to access it. I will go so far as to say there is not a single citizen who will have a net negative result of this ruling.

ocdtrekkie 8y ago
This isn't a hypothetical issue. Comcast has historically been known to "accidentally" sever competing service lines when installing their own: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/lawsuit-comcast-sabotaged-small-isps-network-then-took-its-customers/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/lawsuit-comcast-... Why are poles a "shared limited resource"? They're sticks of wood, companies can either pay to put up their own, or pay to use someone else's.
- AYBABTME 8y ago
  And then you'll have beautiful cities with nice streetscapes. Seriously, if you don't want your street corners to look like a black deathball or [something straight out of Stranger Things][1], you need to consider those poles as "shared limited resource". [1]: https://twitter.com/pketron/status/938097381064654848 https://twitter.com/pketron/status/938097381064654848
  - rayiner 8y ago
    You can’t have everything. People crow about how Japan has fast fiber and why can’t we have it too. Have you ever seen Tokyo? There are above ground electric lines and cables everywhere. This is right downtown: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7001104,139.7314866,3a,75y,187.37h,163.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1swl2TCK1FRWRIke7fGd3jrw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dwl2TCK1FRWRIke7fGd3jrw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D259.41785%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7001104,139.7314866,3a,75y,1.... There’s a reason why Google targeted Fiber in places like Kansas City first—few dense American cities habe above ground utilities, primarily due to aesthetic concerns.
- syshum 8y ago
  >>>They're sticks of wood lol... how about no.... That is such a simplistic view of the infrastructure it is bordering on willful ignorance of the topic
  - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
    It's an oversimplification, sure, but the reality is: Most of the poles being fought over are a given company's actual property that they built and have to maintain, and they are entirely right in trying to defend them from a competitor paying government officials to pass laws granting them the ability to tamper with another company's property and disrupt their services. Furthermore, the government isn't paying them for these poles in this case, they're forcing a company to allow it's competitors to tamper with and likely disrupt their customer's service. If the government wants to nationalize "the infrastructure", I'm all for it, but then they'd be paying out a lot of money to buy this equipment from the companies that actually own it. As someone really annoyed when my Internet drops out in the middle of a game, I'm drastically opposed to these sorts of hijinks, I don't need my ISP's competitor taking out my lines at the same time as sending me mailers about how their service is so much more reliable.
    - syshum 8y ago
      >>Furthermore, the government isn't paying them for these poles in this case, ohhh yes they are... They are allowing these companies free use the land those poles are sunk into free of charge from which they force the owners of said properly to allow them to use under the Utility Easement programs. In most instances the government is also giving them some kind of Monopolistic control over the market segment they service. i.e there is only 1 Telephone Provider, or 1 Electrical Company for that area. In exchange for these FREE things the government requires these companies to SELL attachments to their poles at a reasonable fee. I.e when Comcast wants to connect to a Electrical Pole they pay a monthly FEE to the utility companies To believe the utility companies some how being harmed just does not match reality

ocdtrekkie 8y ago

This isn't a hypothetical issue. Comcast has historically been known to "accidentally" sever competing service lines when installing their own: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/lawsuit-comcast-sabotaged-small-isps-network-then-took-its-customers/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/lawsuit-comcast-... Why are poles a "shared limited resource"? They're sticks of wood, companies can either pay to put up their own, or pay to use someone else's.

AYBABTME 8y ago
And then you'll have beautiful cities with nice streetscapes. Seriously, if you don't want your street corners to look like a black deathball or [something straight out of Stranger Things][1], you need to consider those poles as "shared limited resource". [1]: https://twitter.com/pketron/status/938097381064654848 https://twitter.com/pketron/status/938097381064654848
- rayiner 8y ago
  You can’t have everything. People crow about how Japan has fast fiber and why can’t we have it too. Have you ever seen Tokyo? There are above ground electric lines and cables everywhere. This is right downtown: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7001104,139.7314866,3a,75y,187.37h,163.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1swl2TCK1FRWRIke7fGd3jrw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dwl2TCK1FRWRIke7fGd3jrw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D259.41785%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7001104,139.7314866,3a,75y,1.... There’s a reason why Google targeted Fiber in places like Kansas City first—few dense American cities habe above ground utilities, primarily due to aesthetic concerns.
syshum 8y ago
>>>They're sticks of wood lol... how about no.... That is such a simplistic view of the infrastructure it is bordering on willful ignorance of the topic
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  It's an oversimplification, sure, but the reality is: Most of the poles being fought over are a given company's actual property that they built and have to maintain, and they are entirely right in trying to defend them from a competitor paying government officials to pass laws granting them the ability to tamper with another company's property and disrupt their services. Furthermore, the government isn't paying them for these poles in this case, they're forcing a company to allow it's competitors to tamper with and likely disrupt their customer's service. If the government wants to nationalize "the infrastructure", I'm all for it, but then they'd be paying out a lot of money to buy this equipment from the companies that actually own it. As someone really annoyed when my Internet drops out in the middle of a game, I'm drastically opposed to these sorts of hijinks, I don't need my ISP's competitor taking out my lines at the same time as sending me mailers about how their service is so much more reliable.
  - syshum 8y ago
    >>Furthermore, the government isn't paying them for these poles in this case, ohhh yes they are... They are allowing these companies free use the land those poles are sunk into free of charge from which they force the owners of said properly to allow them to use under the Utility Easement programs. In most instances the government is also giving them some kind of Monopolistic control over the market segment they service. i.e there is only 1 Telephone Provider, or 1 Electrical Company for that area. In exchange for these FREE things the government requires these companies to SELL attachments to their poles at a reasonable fee. I.e when Comcast wants to connect to a Electrical Pole they pay a monthly FEE to the utility companies To believe the utility companies some how being harmed just does not match reality