TOF and the Fibers

Today when visited by a technician seeking the cause of the snap-crackle-pop on the house phones, TOF learned why there is no FiOS service in town. Unlike NJ, where if a provider wants to change from cable to fiber they simply do it, the Commonwealth in its wisdom requires that the provider get permission from the municipality before acting.

The municipalities know an opportunity when they see it and the City of Easton made it a requirement for installing fiber that the provider fund a new wing for the high school. Pay to play, indeed. Unfortunately, the value of the market being served is less than the cost of funding a wing for the high school and so the provider declined.There will be no FiOS locally until the extortion regulation is dropped. Thus, proving you don't have to be a Federal government to get in people's way.

You can see where the city is coming from. They want to point to the goodies they provided without the ugly necessity of taxing voters to pay for them.That would run the risk of the voters saying No in order to complain a few years later about crowding in the high school. (Sure, governments are stoopid; but so are voters.)

TOF recollects another example a few years ago in which a municipality demanded a bike path as the price for allowing a building expansion. And folks wonder why recoveries are sluggish. 

And just to complete the circle, when the technician called into the office to activate the fix he had already set up, the office had no record of the work order. So he had to unplug it and set up another appointment for a time when we won't be in the house.