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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

AT&T is suing the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government [theregister.co.uk] over an ordinance that, according to AT&T, permits third parties to perform work on AT&T's communications network. AT&T is seeking an injunction to restrain Louisville from enforcing the ordinance:

AT&T is suing to block the city of Louisville from moving forward with its plan to bring in the Google Fiber service. The telecoms giant filed a complaint [regmedia.co.uk] [PDF] in federal court on Thursday seeking to prevent the Kentucky's largest city, and Jefferson County, from allowing Google's contractors to access utility poles in order to string fiber lines.

Earlier this month, the city passed an ordinance [theregister.co.uk] giving third party contractors, in this case contractors working for Google, right-of-way access to utility poles. The rule is seen as a vital component for launching the Google Fiber service in Louisville. AT&T (along with Time Warner Cable) has argued against the ordinance, saying that the contractors could cause damage to their existing lines when stringing up the new cables.

Failing to win over the city's Metro Council in a vote, AT&T has now taken the matter to the US District Court for Western Kentucky, alleging that the city's ordinance violates FCC rules on pole access and that Metro Council acted outside of its legal authority in passing the ordinance. "Under the new ordinance, where a third party seeks to attach equipment to a utility pole in the rights-of-way and AT&T already has lines or other equipment on the pole, the third party may remove, alter, and relocate AT&T's facilities as it deems necessary," AT&T says in its filing.

Google Fiber has released a blog post in support of Louisville [blogspot.com]:

We were heartened and encouraged when, a few weeks ago, the City of Louisville, Kentucky unanimously passed [granicus.com] an ordinance that paves the way for its residents having access to faster and better broadband. So yesterday when we heard that AT&T was suing the City of Louisville for passing this so-called "One Touch Make Ready" rule [medium.com], we were disappointed.

[...] This work would be done by a team of contractors the pole owner itself has approved, instead of having multiple crews from multiple companies working on the same pole over weeks or months. One Touch Make Ready facilitates new network deployment by anyone—and that's why groups representing communities [nextcenturycities.org] and fiber builders support it, too.

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