atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General Telecom News Telco Sues Municipality For Laying Their Own Fiber

Telco to fiber-deploying town: we sue because we care

TDS Telecom, a telco with 3,500 employees and a presence in 30 states, is suing the town of Monticello, Minnesota, for trying to put in a fiber optic network of its own. Why would a company try to prevent a town from building itself a faster network? TDS tells us that it's really just looking out for the taxpayer (and its own infrastructure investment).

CLICK HERE for the original story from arstechnica.com.

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I've never heard of this happening?!
:shrug:

There was a similar lawsuit in a small town (I can't remember the name of the town) here in Texas when the city provided free wireless Internet in various parts of town.

Some of the local ISP's sued the city because they felt it was unfair competition.
I can't recall precisely how it turned out but I think the case was dismissed.

Why shouldn't the city be able to set up their own network or provide a free service if they want to?

I know, it could be applied to just about any service, including the services I provide for a fee. But if the City I live in offered free telephone systems you can bet I'd have one or more of them.

The days of having a monopoly of this type of service are long gone, so if the big players don't toe up to the line, they deserve to lose a piece of the market share.

We all remember how Bell/ATT kicked & screamed at the thought of breaking up their monopolies....

While it is true that not all muni developed networks are successful, what is true is the campaigns waged by the local cable franchisee and/or LEC's to discredit and malign any perceived benefits of such ventures. The vast majority of muni networks have accomplished what they set out to do. Provide a service to the constituency and foster real competition thereby reducing consumer costs.
Several years ago, we had a muni owned utility that wanted to install fiber to all of its facilities. The campaign waged by the LEC was vicious and failed! Now, the local school district leases fiber access!

here in southwest quebec there is a schoolboard that has started selling bandwidth in rural towns where the telco and cable company doesnt offer high speed service, the traditional providers are flipping out just the same. its all the same everywhere

Selling bandwidth is one thing, giving it away with tax supported facilities is another. That said, the schoolboard is hopefully selling it at more than cost, to help support the education programs. Sort of a back-door, not so painful, tax. It should be priced to provide 'fair' competition against 'retail' providers, to encourage them to 'come to town'. John C.

from the article i read its at a profit but a deep discount to what the retail providers are doing. Basically, about 5 years ago the schools (in 2 separate boards) split the cost of a fibre network on a large geographic area. they are presently providing service to business customers in the areas surrounding the schools with plans to expand

Here in Wilson the City has had the great idea of expanding their fiber intranet to include the entire city and is now selling internet, phone, and tv over fiber competing with Embarq, Time Warner and all of the internet companies in town. They tell us that they are not using taxpayer money....... guess we will have to see. We have seen many of our business customers switch to their internet, waiting to see how the Phone and TV will do, it is only avalible at limited locations right now
Check it out www.greenlightnc.com

I see both sides here but something about a municipality doing this bothers me. They can do this without profit because they don't have to make a profit. On top of that they legally have the right to control through franchise their competition (the LEC) and charge them franchise fees.

So yeah, I'm going to side with unfair competition here since the LEC was there first. If a CLEC were to come in after the muni was up and running then I would say it's their problem.

-Hal

Hal, about the only thing that I feel comfortable allowing municipalities to do is to provide potable water and remove 'non-potable' water. They don't provide non-subsidized transportation successfully. I'm surprised that some, including Fayetteville, provide electricity sucessfully. The thought of them directly controlling all communication is downright scary. Never mind having 3 bucket trucks standing by, while one guy climbs the pole and opens the splice case to connect a new pair! Or 6 trucks around a SLIC hut, while the only guy with any knowledge is back at the garage, waiting for the mechanic to finish his break and change the oil. And the comment about being able to control any thought of competition through franchise finagaling hit the nail on the head! John C.