Telecoms Sue Over High-Speed Links

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Brett Glass [brett () lariat net]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 9:41 PM
To: David Farber; ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Telecoms Sue Over High-Speed Links

Dave, and everyone:

Lawsuits against municipal systems aren't the biggest concern,
because there are plenty of private players (myself included!)
ready to step forward to ensure that there are choices in the last
mile. The lawsuit that is the true threat to broadband deployment
and competition is AT&T v. LinkLine (see
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080623/apfn_scotus_internet.html).

If AT&T wins this suit, the "essential facilities doctrine" will be
gutted, and ILECs will be immune from antitrust lawsuits regarding
to refusal to deal in access to essential facilities. This would
allow the ILECs to cut off third parties' wholesale access to the
backbone as well as to local DSL systems, destroying virtually all
remaining broadband competition.

--Brett Glass


> http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202422769174&rss=ltn
>
> Telecommunications companies are suing cities around the nation to
> stop the construction of publicly owned fiber optic systems to
> bring high-speed Internet, telephone and cable television to
> communities far from metropolitan centers.




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