Courts favor AT&T / Verizon, back new video franchising rules
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jun 27th 2008 8:41PM
posted Jun 27th 2008 8:41PM
While Verizon and AT&T try to work their FiOS and U-verse services into new areas, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth circuit in Cincinnati handed them a victory today by ruling that the FCC's new rules setting time limits for local authorities to act on new franchise applications are within its authority. The new ruling at the heart of the debate gives local jurisdictions 90 days to act on apps by providers that already have access to city land to run connections, and 180 days for new entrants to citeis or towns, and bar them from mandating new requirements the FCC finds unreasonable, like building a community swimming pool. While we're big fans of municipal pools, we're also into competition and consumer choice, so if you've been waiting to get TV via telco breathe easy knowing the path just got a little smoother.Read - Reuters
Read - Verizon's response
thank you fcc... now the cable downward spiral is closer... f*** cable co's.
I don't know about you, but I live in a town not a city, or for that matter multiple "citeis".
Living in an AT&T area, I hope that the city votes AT&T's crappy U-verse service down until they go all fiber. Better yet, give the franchise to Verizon. Better yet still, break AT&T up all over again. Free PacBell.
S.B.C. bought at&t, pacbell, and Cingular. S.B.C. kept the name because the world knows the name at&t not S.B.C.
Wait, why is it a bad thing to get a community pool from the cable companies?
You have to be joking? It's bad because the price of the pool gets past onto your cable bill. There's no free pools in this world. Just stupid muni boards that like to swim. Speaking of pools, I'm sure the prez of Comcast just dropped a baby ruth in his swimming pool when he heard this news.
I live in the Philadelphia area, and managed to snag Fios Internet and TV a few months ago. My friends are still paying for the new skyscraper Comcast just built in downtown Philadelphia.