[olug] Google Fiber home Internet sevice RFI

[Hurley Rod]

This might be a tough political chore, since Al Gore invented the Internet.  We aren't talking about some yuk like Linus Torvalds here.  Al's a nobel prize winner, for goodness sake.  

-----Original Message-----
From: olug-bounces at olug.org [mailto:olug-bounces at olug.org] On Behalf Of Dan Linder
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 10:28 AM
To: Omaha Linux User Group
Subject: Re: [olug] Google Fiber home Internet sevice RFI

Maybe this is where we could add some benefit to the state at large
while attracting Googles attention.

If we lobby our state and/or federal legislators to allow for this, or
drop the existing law(s), then we'd get Googles attention AND show
that the state as a whole is trying to make things right for true
competition.

Imagine the good press that the senators, governor, mayors, etc would
get if they were able to claim they helped bring in this high-speed
network their constituants.

Or on the flip side, someone running for office would get a big boost
if they were the person that was a high-profile proponent of removing
additional govenrment regulation.

Either way you spin it, it plays well with the "smaller government"
that is very popular here in Nebraska.

Anyone know the law(s) specifically that we would need to have repealed?

Dan

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 16:24, James Ringler <jringler at plainspower.com> wrote:
> Sam Tetherow wrote:
>>
>> There isn't any state law that I am aware of that prohibits you from
>> laying your own infrastructure.  There are hoops that have to be jumped
>> through to get ROW from the municipality, but part of the deregulation of
>> telco services was for just this purpose.
>>
>> I know for instance that Three Rivers Telephone "coppered over" Qwest in
>> Ainsworth.  Unite fiber in Lincoln has their own fiber loop that is outside
>> of Windstream's network.  Time Warner's cable network is outside of
>> Windstream in Lincoln, yet both offer voice and internet.  I also know that
>> for a while Lincoln was trying to find another cable provider to compete
>> against TW.  The reason that it doesn't happen very often is that it is
>> horribly expensive to do it and if you don't have a captive audience (the
>> only provider) it is hard to make the numbers work.
>>
>> Sam Tetherow
>> Sandhills Wireless
>
>
> They passed a law about 10 years ago that prohibited municipal entities from
> becoming an ISP.    Windstream and Time Warner lobbied for the law since TW
> was in the process of launching Road Runner.   At the time, LES had the
> entire city laced with fiber and TW was worried that if LES could light it
> up, TW would lose their back side.   The law never was lifted off the books.
>  At that time we were working on fiber to the desktop in Waverly..  since
> they were booming with industry development.   Our plans were quickly
> shattered
>
> Here's a link that shows Nebraska being on the ban.
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/01/municipal-fiber-needs-more-fdr-localism-fewer-state-bans.ars
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