AT&T, Poster Child For Government Favoritism, Mocks Google Fiber For Government Favoritism

Broadband

from the glass-mansions dept

You’d be hard pressed to find a better example of government-pampered mono/duopoly than AT&T. For years, the ISP has all but bought state laws protecting it from broadband competition. When simply buying awful state laws proves too cumbersome or obvious, it often tries to use poison pills in unrelated legislation (like traffic laws) to hinder competitors. The end result is a laundry list of states like Tennessee that remain broadband backwaters, quite by AT&T design, as the company uses state legislatures as glorified marionnettes, all marching in line to protect the status quo.

That’s why it’s more than a little amusing to see AT&T pen a new blog post that mocks Google Fiber’s lack of progress (in part thanks to AT&T), while maligning the upstart ISP for “seeking out government favoritism at every level”:

“Google Fiber will no doubt continue its broadband experiments, while coming up with excuses for its shortcomings and learning curves. It will also no doubt continue to seek favoritism from government at every level. Just last week Google Fiber threatened the Nashville City Council that it would stop its fiber build if an ordinance Google Fiber drafted wasn?t passed. Instead of playing by the same rules as everyone else building infrastructure, Google Fiber demands special treatment and indeed in some places is getting it, unfairly.”

First, let’s just get out of the way that the idea of AT&T, now bone-grafted to our intelligence agencies’ domestic surveillance efforts, giving anybody a lecture on government favoritism deserves a major hypocrisy award.

What’s AT&T actually upset about? Google Fiber has been pushing to reform utility pole attachment rules, one of several layers of regional bureaucracy telecom monopolies used to slow broadband competitors from coming to market. Google Fiber’s been pushing cities like Louisville and Nashville for “one touch make ready” laws that let a single, insured contractor move any ISPs’ hardware — often reducing installation from half a year to just a month. AT&T’s response? To sue cities like Louisville for overstepping their authority. Such decisions, AT&T argues, should be left up to the state regulatory bodies that AT&T all but owns.

AT&T’s taking the opportunity to kick Google Fiber while it’s down, the company plagued by recent rumors that it’s pausing a handful of unannounced cities to consider supplementing fiber service with wireless broadband. Sources with knowledge of Google Fiber’s plan tell me many of the reports about Google Fiber hitting deployment “snags” have been either overstated or in error, but the fact that Google Fiber hasn’t publicly clarified its dedication to expansion suggests there likely is some possible restructuring going on as the company takes stock of its recent Webpass acquisition and eyes wireless as a way to supplement fiber.

Regardless, AT&T’s blog post goes to great lengths to lecture Google Fiber about the limited impact of its gigabit fiber to the home deployments. This, despite the fact we’ve highlighted time and time again how AT&T’s own gigabit deployments are dramatically and misleadingly overstated (something I affectionately refer to as “fiber to the press release.”). Amusingly, AT&T’s Joan Marsh also goes out of her way to mock Google Fiber for recently saying it might have to abandon Nashville as a launch market if AT&T and friends don’t get out of the way:

“Meanwhile, without excuses or finger-pointing, and without presenting ultimatums to cities in exchange for service, AT&T continues to deploy fiber and to connect our customers to broadband services in communities across the country. Welcome to the broadband network business, Google Fiber. We?ll be watching your next move from our rear view mirror. Oh, and pardon our dust.”

Right, like that time AT&T falsely threatened to withhold all fiber deployments if the government passed net neutrality rules?

There are plenty of things AT&T is perfectly suited to give lectures on. How to buy state legislatures and laws? Sure. How to help government tap dance around the law to spy on Americans? Yup. How to turn the other cheek while scammers rip off your customers and the hearing impaired? Sure tootin’. But AT&T giving lectures on government favoritism, integrity and level playing fields is kind of like receiving lectures on halitosis from twelve-day-old road kill.

Filed Under: broadband, competition, favoritism, google fiber, lobbying
Companies: at&t, google