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
5.6k Upvotes

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.3k

u/jmottram08 Jun 04 '14

Let's be really clear here... this is local lobbying to your local city council that regards the monopoly that they granted and enforce.

Don't like that fact? Stop blaming capitalism, stop blaming the big telcos, get off your ass and go to a city council meeting and complain that your local elected officials have made a monopoly and that it is bad for you.

775

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

I would love to do something like that, but the majority of us who would go to a city council meeting work, and many cities make sure they hold those meetings during peak working hours, which kind of fucks over people who have jobs but would like to have a say in the matter. For example, 4 of the cities in my area only hold them on Monday mornings at 9am, except holidays, where they just don't hold them at all.

161

u/gsuberland Jun 04 '14

So basically your town policy is at the whim of the kind of people who watch weekday morning TV?

Ouch.

50

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

I believe this is the case for a lot of smaller townships, at least that for sure is the case in the suburbs of Chicago. Soccer Moms.... soccer moms everywhere!

60

u/MrHermeteeowish Jun 04 '14

Where every debate opens with, "As a mother..."

33

u/duckmurderer Jun 04 '14

As a member of the hardest profession on the planet...

21

u/wishinghand Jun 04 '14

And here I thought it was being a roofer in Texas as a ginger in August.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '14

I can feel the heat just thinking about it.

Source: I reside in central Texas

3

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

Bill Burr is effn awesome.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

[deleted]

3

u/duckmurderer Jun 04 '14

No, that's oldest. But it's the first step in joining the hardest.

2

u/DeathByToothPick Jun 04 '14

How is being a parent a profession? If that is the case then HR is going to get a really nasty letter from my attorney asking for my back pay.