3 ms·

They're not allowed to. Regulatory capture is running wild.

by wmf 2y ago

dheera 2y ago
They're fucking Google. If they dig the streets up and give me 10 Gbps fiber I will be more than happy to show up to city council and yell the shit away from any NIMBY old fart that says no.
- lokar 2y ago
  It’s more that CA law makes it easy for comcast to tie it up in the courts forever, regardless of what your city council says.
- TulliusCicero 2y ago
  And more NIMBYs will show up to scream about Google overrunning local government. It is extremely easy to make hugely powerful corporations the villain, for obvious reasons, and this doesn't stop being true in the case where they want something actually good.
  - consumer451 2y ago
    Sorry to have creeped into your bio, but what is your bandwidth in Munich?
  - manquer 2y ago
    And yet all these mega corps can spend 100s of millions on lobbying and get favorable law passed or regulation taken care whether labor, FTC or taxes or EPA . The local council is apparently the last bastion of democracy that can ward of influence of their largest tax payers and the wealthiest residents who are their employees
rayiner 2y ago
The notion that any ISP has more pull than Google, Facebook, and Apple in the Bay Area is facially absurd. Cupertino literally has a deal with Apple where it pays back 1/3 of Apple’s sales taxes: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/11/04/california-wants-to-end-cupertinos-tax-deal-with-apple https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/11/04/california-wants-...
- dilyevsky 2y ago
  That’s Cupertino. MV and Google have had much more adversarial relationship going back more than a decade. Look up their failed free wifi project as an example of this
snakeyjake 2y ago
People really need to cool it with the 2024 buzzphrase "regulatory capture". I don't know which podcast, and I'm almost certain it is some dumbass podcast somewhere, is promulgating the phrase which has been popping up with ludicrous regularity in 2024 to describe every situation where someone is pissed off about something, but the primary reason people don't have 10gbps internet isn't regulatory capture, it is that the deployment costs are too high unless either subsidized by the government (as is the case in many parts of Europe and this instance) or there is a combination of high density and eager market. "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. San Jose is served by over 20 ISPs offering services from wireless to 10-gig fiber depending on location. The locations aren't determined by "regulatory capture" they are determined by a cost-benefit analysis. You, yes you, can start your own ISP anywhere in the country, right now, today. Anywhere. Remember 20 years ago when NYC gave Verizon exclusive franchise rights and then everyone got upset that they didn't fulfill their end of the bargain? That's gone. Everywhere, it's gone. Anyone, including you, yes you, can get a permit to microtrench fiber to any building in NYC unless there is excess capacity already in which case the party holding the excess capacity MUST sublicense it to you. Same for California. Same for any state. Rural Texas? Vexus Fiber is diggin shit up in Tyler TX. Middle of nowhere WA? Ziply is taking the risk. Doesn't matter if it is the densest or most historically protected city or loneliest prairie town you, yes you, can start an ISP right now, today. Reforms to the Pole Attachment Act have made this shit is easy now. Easy, but not cheap. Just gather $100 million so you can pay the $30k-50k per mile (due to material and labor NOT "rEgUlAtoRy CaPtuRe") to microtrench or pole-attach, get all of the permits to trench on public rights-of-way and negotiate the few (if any) non-public crossings you have to make, post the bonds needed to ensure that if you go bankrupt mid-construction there's cash to clean up YOUR mess, hire the network/civil engineers needed, pay for peering, staff an office and support center, and you, yes you, can start your own fiber ISP--today. Hell, many states will give you money to offset the costs. If I had $100 million I could wire all 2,300 homes in my Maryland suburb with fiber and no regulation could stop me. If I had $100 million I wouldn't waste it on that (we can already choose from multiple gigabit+ ISPs) I would retire.
- simoncion 2y ago
  > "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. It's also Burlingame, San Mateo, Fremont, Union City... Or, if the traffic is bad, it's Redwood City, Menlo Park, Stanford, Cupertino... Or, if you're taking public transit (or walking), it's pretty much just Mountain View.

They're not allowed to. Regulatory capture is running wild.

by wmf 2y ago

They're not allowed to. Regulatory capture is running wild.

They're fucking Google. If they dig the streets up and give me 10 Gbps fiber I will be more than happy to show up to city council and yell the shit away from any NIMBY old fart that says no.

lokar 2y ago
It’s more that CA law makes it easy for comcast to tie it up in the courts forever, regardless of what your city council says.
TulliusCicero 2y ago
And more NIMBYs will show up to scream about Google overrunning local government. It is extremely easy to make hugely powerful corporations the villain, for obvious reasons, and this doesn't stop being true in the case where they want something actually good.
- consumer451 2y ago
  Sorry to have creeped into your bio, but what is your bandwidth in Munich?
- manquer 2y ago
  And yet all these mega corps can spend 100s of millions on lobbying and get favorable law passed or regulation taken care whether labor, FTC or taxes or EPA . The local council is apparently the last bastion of democracy that can ward of influence of their largest tax payers and the wealthiest residents who are their employees

rayiner 2y ago

The notion that any ISP has more pull than Google, Facebook, and Apple in the Bay Area is facially absurd. Cupertino literally has a deal with Apple where it pays back 1/3 of Apple’s sales taxes: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/11/04/california-wants-to-end-cupertinos-tax-deal-with-apple https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/11/04/california-wants-...

dilyevsky 2y ago
That’s Cupertino. MV and Google have had much more adversarial relationship going back more than a decade. Look up their failed free wifi project as an example of this

snakeyjake 2y ago

People really need to cool it with the 2024 buzzphrase "regulatory capture". I don't know which podcast, and I'm almost certain it is some dumbass podcast somewhere, is promulgating the phrase which has been popping up with ludicrous regularity in 2024 to describe every situation where someone is pissed off about something, but the primary reason people don't have 10gbps internet isn't regulatory capture, it is that the deployment costs are too high unless either subsidized by the government (as is the case in many parts of Europe and this instance) or there is a combination of high density and eager market. "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. San Jose is served by over 20 ISPs offering services from wireless to 10-gig fiber depending on location. The locations aren't determined by "regulatory capture" they are determined by a cost-benefit analysis. You, yes you, can start your own ISP anywhere in the country, right now, today. Anywhere. Remember 20 years ago when NYC gave Verizon exclusive franchise rights and then everyone got upset that they didn't fulfill their end of the bargain? That's gone. Everywhere, it's gone. Anyone, including you, yes you, can get a permit to microtrench fiber to any building in NYC unless there is excess capacity already in which case the party holding the excess capacity MUST sublicense it to you. Same for California. Same for any state. Rural Texas? Vexus Fiber is diggin shit up in Tyler TX. Middle of nowhere WA? Ziply is taking the risk. Doesn't matter if it is the densest or most historically protected city or loneliest prairie town you, yes you, can start an ISP right now, today. Reforms to the Pole Attachment Act have made this shit is easy now. Easy, but not cheap. Just gather $100 million so you can pay the $30k-50k per mile (due to material and labor NOT "rEgUlAtoRy CaPtuRe") to microtrench or pole-attach, get all of the permits to trench on public rights-of-way and negotiate the few (if any) non-public crossings you have to make, post the bonds needed to ensure that if you go bankrupt mid-construction there's cash to clean up YOUR mess, hire the network/civil engineers needed, pay for peering, staff an office and support center, and you, yes you, can start your own fiber ISP--today. Hell, many states will give you money to offset the costs. If I had $100 million I could wire all 2,300 homes in my Maryland suburb with fiber and no regulation could stop me. If I had $100 million I wouldn't waste it on that (we can already choose from multiple gigabit+ ISPs) I would retire.

simoncion 2y ago
> "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. It's also Burlingame, San Mateo, Fremont, Union City... Or, if the traffic is bad, it's Redwood City, Menlo Park, Stanford, Cupertino... Or, if you're taking public transit (or walking), it's pretty much just Mountain View.