>Did Google do the political work here and leave the door open for competition? Incidentally, AT&T did a lot of similar political work for others years ago whe

>Did Google do the political work here and leave the door open for competition? Incidentally, AT&T did a lot of similar political work for others years ago when they were starting their U-Verse rollout. They lobbied in numerous states for video franchises to be granted on a state-wide basis, rather than having to go to each individual municipality and negotiate deals. That allowed them to basically steamroll into an area. When AT&T did this, the laws were written such that the cable companies selling service in the same areas could tear up their contracts with the municipalities and go statewide as well.