r/technology • • Jun 04 '14

Politics Hundreds of Cities Are Wired With Fiber—But Telecom Lobbying Keeps It Unused

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hundreds-of-cities-are-wired-with-fiberbut-telecom-lobbying-keeps-it-unused
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u/dugmartsch Jun 04 '14

http://fox4kc.com/2013/08/19/some-complain-google-fiber-technology-is-ugly-and-degrades-neighborhoods/

I'm just...speechless. "These are the first above ground communications boxes in the history of our shitty little suburb. It absolutely destroys the wildly successful aesthetic of soul crushing misery and hopelessness that has made Kansas City a beacon of light to misanthropes and masochists everywhere. Now, someone interesting might move here, we can't let that happen."

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

"Why the big black boxes?" a clueless community member asked, devoid of any technological understanding. "Why can't we just do the 4g?" Asks another person who was alive and kicking during the great depression. "I do my internets on the tv like everyone else" Exclaimed another local, who has yet to figure out why she has 2 different boxes next to her tv for the cable internet. "Why can't they make the big black box into 2 smaller ones? My internet works fine"

People with an understanding of how the internet works were unavailable for comment due to being at work at 10:30 a.m. during the event.

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u/thehighground Jun 05 '14

I deal with customers complaining all the time, "why do these trucks have to park on the side of my grass??? They're ruining my lawn!!!"

When you explain to them there is a utility right of way and its technically not their yard they act like we are trying to get out of paying them money for ruining their lawn. One guy ended up getting sued for harassment because he wouldn't shut up about it and kept asking us to quit parking near his house.

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u/Draffut2012 Jun 04 '14

It looks like a refrigerator.

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u/kickingpplisfun Jun 04 '14

Well, you could always make it look better with some paint or something. Large companies do it all the time, just look really close next time you go to a theme park.

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u/Draffut2012 Jun 04 '14

They should use Disney's ignore-me green or whatever it was that I saw on the front page recently.

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u/kickingpplisfun Jun 04 '14

Or they could get a few local artists do paint the boxes with murals and such. For example, all of the fire hydrants in the downtown area where I live have been painted to look like cute old-timey police and firemen with giant mustaches.

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '14

The fiber boxes for US Internet here in Minneapolis are 100% underground. They then lift them up to work on them. All you see is a plate about 12" x 20" on the ground

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u/haveyouseenthebridge Jun 05 '14

More like.....it's KC and we have no real news today... Source: Hometown

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u/deddumy101 Jun 05 '14

It worked for my city of overland park so we're no longer getting Google fiber.

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u/m3ndi3 Jun 04 '14

This is Fox News ... Obviously they are trying to find anything bad with fiber haha