A friend and I, on a whim, spent a fair amount of time looking into how to create an ISP using our own hardware. The hardware is cheap, right? How hard can it really be?
But we ended up exactly as you'd expect from reading the article: trying to figure out how companies get pole attachment rights. If I wanted to pay a contractor to string a line between our houses, that should be doable right? Well, no. For our local government, there was no clear way to get approved to use the public utility lines. Once you find the office that manages pole attachments, if you ask them about the approval process, I guarantee you'll get blank stares.
I think it's possible that it's been so long since any new companies have been granted attachment rights, the people in city government don't even know what to do with you if you ask to apply. This leads you only one route: lobbying the city council, which is where our little experiment ground to a halt.
But we ended up exactly as you'd expect from reading the article: trying to figure out how companies get pole attachment rights. If I wanted to pay a contractor to string a line between our houses, that should be doable right? Well, no. For our local government, there was no clear way to get approved to use the public utility lines. Once you find the office that manages pole attachments, if you ask them about the approval process, I guarantee you'll get blank stares.
I think it's possible that it's been so long since any new companies have been granted attachment rights, the people in city government don't even know what to do with you if you ask to apply. This leads you only one route: lobbying the city council, which is where our little experiment ground to a halt.
(Btw, if you want to see the positive aspect of having regulatory hurdles to run communications lines, check out this old picture of New York: http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2012-07/71033655.jpg and http://www.nwhistorycourse.org/ttcourse/Year2/unit2/week9/im...)