
FCC calls AT&T’s fiber bluff, demands detailed construction plans - jseliger
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/11/fcc-calls-atts-fiber-bluff-demands-detailed-construction-plans/
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christiangenco
How difficult is it to build an ISP? I feel like net neutrality would prevail
if the market was opened up, even without government help (but certainly not a
market in which 95% of America has less than two choices for internet
provider). Is the problem that cities have already sold their souls to get the
internet deals they have?

Broadcasting internet over the air seems like a much easier way of entering
new markets than laying cable: where are the 4G home internet providers?

I realize Google Fiber is likely just an elaborate negotiation tactic to scare
AT&T et. al. into not being shitheads, but Fiber spreading everywhere would be
good for everyone.

~~~
eksith
Extremely difficult. There is plenty of technical expertise in networking,
laying fiber, trenching, construction, equipment etc... around. Even with the
local terrain. The problem is with the legal landscape.

Take Google for instance. The biggest hurdles they had to deployment are the
protective hurdles put in place by ISP friendly politicians. Some states have
regulation in place that new deployments must reach last mile to virtually
every resident, which is cost and time prohibitive when there's no profit
initially. You have to bite the bullet and do the deployment as necessary,
bend to the legal winds and bear the full cost (which, even for Google may be
a bit high) with no guarantee of profit until years after deployment.

4G is a bit tricky as well since there are areas where you'll have little
choice but to rent existing towers or build your own. In some places, the
terrain gets in the way, so towers are fairly limited in what they can do.
Then there are the issues with maintenance and safety for crews working on
these towers, which cell providers don't seem to care much about
[http://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-
fatalities](http://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-fatalities)

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jsmthrowaway
> Then there are the issues with maintenance and safety for crews working on
> these towers, which cell providers don't seem to care much about
> [http://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-
> fatalities](http://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-fatalities)

Speaking as a former radio engineer, I was surprised ProPublica focused
specifically on mobile phone providers there (I watched that Frontline special
with interest, given my former line of work; I've been to many towers and have
seen many memorials at their bases). Tower climbing even in traditional
broadcast has long been known to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the
world. Most climbers freeclimb a significant majority of the tower and,
honestly, I can understand why: _safely_ climbing a tall tower without an
elevator takes hours.

Jay Guilford is also a really bad example. To its credit, though, the
documentary at least went into why, but oddly pushed blame back on the
providers for his mistakes due to pressure. His was a weird citation when the
message, which you clearly received and act upon, was cellular providers'
negligence and attempts at liability minimization.

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joesmo
I don't care if they never lay down another foot of fiber; that's how
important net neutrality is. Without it, their fiber is essentially useless
anyway. In fact, if they stop laying fiber, someone else who doesn't hate net
neutrality undoubtedly will. Hopefully the FCC doesn't buy this bullshit.

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Moral_
Orthogonal to this post, why would anyone want AT&T fiber anyway? Who cares if
you have 1gbps to the first hop if AT&T et. al refuse to peer at more than
1gbp with L3, Cognet, Hurricane Electric, etc it's worthless.

~~~
eksith
It would still be acceptable for a large number of folks who do primarily
browsing/downloading, but for Netflix et al (which is quickly becoming the
primary means of entertainment for a lot of people), it's not worth it. I'd
say 10Gbp peering or it's not worth it.

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ricardonunez
AT&T sounds like a politician, making promises, denying their comments and
backpedaling all the time. Now you can add bluffing too.

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dang
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=fcc+at%26t#!/story/sort_by_date/0/...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=fcc+at%26t#!/story/sort_by_date/0/fcc%20at%26t)

