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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5 to hottboiinnc4

Premium Member

to hottboiinnc4

Re: Fair is Fair.

said by hottboiinnc4:

Title says it all.

Now this was inevitable. If a gov't discriminates between vendors and doesn't go thru open bidding processes, they will be challenged in court. But KC knows they are on weak footing and is doing deals with TWC & AT&T.

»professional.wsj.com/art ··· 3Wj.html

Among the sweeteners granted Google by both cities are free office space and free power for Google's equipment, according to the agreement on file with the cities. The company also gets the use of all the cities' "assets and infrastructure"—including fiber, buildings, land and computer tools, for no charge. Both cities are even providing Google a team of government employees "dedicated to the project."

Time Warner Cable has been negotiating with Kansas City, Kan.,to get a "parity agreement" granting it the same concessions as Google got, the city and the company says. Time Warner Cable has already signed such a deal with Kansas City, Mo.

AT&T also has approached Kansas City, Mo., for the same deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.

All of a sudden, the cost to Kansas City taxpayers is going up and up for this Google deal.

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru

Premium Member

Considering the attitude Time Warner and AT&T had over services it would seem they would accept but not provide gigabit ethernet like Google is currently doing. The amount of funding AT&T has already received from other sources has not caused any great innovation in the market of Kansas either.

A fair approach would of been for no red carpet towards anyone in that market but since there was a demand for faster services then this is a burden the tax payers must face but towards the provider chosen for those incentives not a free lunch for the rest who couldn't deliver or much rather wouldn't deliver.

Judging how Kansas City is making deals now with the other two it seems that they didn't really follow proper procedures when entering this Google deal and Time Warner including AT&T know it.

I wonder what the fine print really says. Public service request anyone?
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72 to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
No the cost goes down. If they get lower pole costs, then theoretically franchise fees should go down, but you know that one will need to be pulled off like "dial tone fee".

What the crux of this is NOT about franchise fees, they simply pass them through to the customer, but Franchise agreements which today say wire me 100% or not. What these guys want to do is have selective "cherry picking" WITHIN a franchise market so they can only wire the profitable markets.

This is great because if this happens, these corporations won't help themselves and will just start wiring where they can make money, and sooner or later the taxpayers will revolt and voila fiber will become a utility like it should have 10 years ago.

Then rinse and repeat on the big guys finding legislative ways to block competitors so that thinks are only fair....and by fair keeping all those potential innovators out...
WhatNow
Premium Member
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC

WhatNow

Premium Member

With AT&T and other Telcos the have to provide POTS service to everyone. The cable companies only have to provide it to the city limits. They can move outside the limits of their franchise if it will be profitable but not required.
Google did get get a lot of exemptions like pole placement and I am guessing most of their cable placement will get speedy approval where AT&T and TWC have to go through the normal procedures.

I agree they need to get their act together and put fiber in and compete or they need one physical network fiber provider and then the customer chooses the content provider. If you have one communications connection provider and it is a private company you have to have a very good watchdog commission to make sure the private company gives excellent service as the network get older and needs repair, maintenance, and upgrades. I would suggest the Fiber provider only provide one or two terminated fibers to the house and let the content providers provide the end electronics and content. That way anybody that wants to provide content has a chance to sell to customers. The customer would pay the fiber provider separate from the content provider.
If the Fiber provider is a city department it becomes like the other utility departments some cities do a great job and other cities let their water, sewer, power, streets fall apart.

As you can see the right of way is getting crowded. With Google a house may have a connection to Google, AT&T and TWC plus any satellite connections. They also have power, water, sewer and maybe gas connection.

marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO

marigolds to FFH5

MVM

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

»professional.wsj.com/art ··· 3Wj.html

Time Warner Cable has been negotiating with Kansas City, Kan.,to get a "parity agreement" granting it the same concessions as Google got, the city and the company says. Time Warner Cable has already signed such a deal with Kansas City, Mo.

AT&T also has approached Kansas City, Mo., for the same deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.

All of a sudden, the cost to Kansas City taxpayers is going up and up for this Google deal.

Just a note, TWC already had this deal before Google every even talked about fiber. AT&T has had the deal on the table waiting for their signature for about 5 years. Kansas City taxpayers have no say in the matter, as both deals were brokered at the state level.

Also, Missouri has a professional services clause to its contracts. You do not have to put ISP services out to bid as long as a state level contract is in place (which TWC, AT&T, and Charter all have).