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Despite AT&T Lawsuit, Google Fiber Proceeds in Louisville

AT&T may be suing to stop Google Fiber in Louisville, Kentucky from moving forward, but Google Fiber's plans for the city are proceeding anyway. To ease Google Fiber's entry into the city, Louisville streamlined its pole-attachment process, letting a third-party, insured contractor move all market competitors' gear. Such "one touch make ready" rules benefit all competitors, and reduces the red tape delay of pole attachment in the city from an estimated six months -- to just one.

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But because Google Fiber would compete with AT&T, which owns 40% of the utility poles in the city, AT&T filed suit, claiming that Louisville's pole attachment changes violate the law.

But the lawsuit apparently isn't stopping Google Fiber from moving forward anyway. The company is currently advertising job opportunities in Louisville. The company says it's currently looking for a network deployment and operations construction manager; a field operations manager; a project manager; a fiber network deployment manager and operations construction lead; and a lead engineer.

In addition to the job postings, Google Fiber continues to submit fiber hut build plans to the city. Some eleven such plans have already been submitted for the huts, each of which capable of providing service to around 11,000 residents.

All told, Google Fiber likely sees AT&T's lawsuit as little more than a temporary setback to bringing additional broadband competition to Louisville.

"Google Fiber stands with the City of Louisville and the other cities across the country that are taking steps to bring faster, better broadband to their residents," Google Fiber said in a recent blog post. "Such policies reduce cost, disruption, and delay, by allowing the work needed to prepare a utility pole for new fiber to be attached in as little as a single visit—which means more safety for drivers and the neighborhood."

Most recommended from 26 comments


etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

20 recommendations

etaadmin

Member

Lead, follow or

GET OUT OF THE WAY

At$t is NOT leading, at$t is NOT following so their ONLY option is to go quietly into the night and get out of the way!

karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
Moscow, ID

6 recommendations

karlmarx

Member

Lets compare to GigaPower

Gigapower IS going to BE available in Louisville, to about 250 people, but they haven't actually started building it yet. Of course, they released a PRESS RELEASE, that it's coming 'real soon now', so that's just as good as actually 'building' it.
Considering that google has filed plans to support over 100,000 people with their plans, I don't think that google has much to worry about from AT&T (who 'claims' to have passed over 1 million homes), but upon CLOSER inspection, they've released PRESS RELEASES, rather than actually BUILT it. This is AT&T, the way you can tell they are lying is by reading anything they release to the press
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

5 recommendations

ham3843

Member

AT&T Potential.... NEGLECTED!

We have a VRAD (for FTTN U Verse) but the copper wirelines that deliver the
services to our homes are rotting, and decrepit causing all kinds of stability, signal and interference issues. Fiber is great but not if the last mile delivering it is rotting copper.

Instead of AT&T investing in building out the fiber to the premises they bought a TV dinosaur DirecTV....for a frickin Kings Ransom.
NgtFlyer
join:2000-07-09
Marietta, GA

1 edit

3 recommendations

NgtFlyer

Member

One does not simply stop Google Fiber ...

They can proceed with operations that do not involve AT&T's poles while the lawsuit gets sorted. There are sections of fiber that surely will be buried and others that run on poles not owned by the big telcom death star.