CircleID has the story of ILECs and Cable companies once again fighting municipalities, like BellSouth and Cox fought LUS.

With President Obama determined to promote the development of open network telecommunications and smart grid networks we can expect the incumbents to step up their legal battles to stop this from happening.

In relation to the recent $7 billion stimulus package AT&T made a statement that it didn't need the money, but that it would launch a defensive campaign against any competitors using the money to encroach on its territory.

To me, it's anti-American for the Duopoly to fight the city. It's more taxpayer money that could be used for something useful that gets used to fight against two enemies of progress and innovation. Should Lafayette taxpayers have had to spend $500,000 in fees to fight the Duopoly?

There is case after case where the city or town with broadband including FTTB (fiber-to-the-business) has created jobs and added tax base while increasing home values. When the duopoly sues to stop broadband deployment, while crying that it is unfair competition, look at the profit statements of these companies. And look at what it is costing your community.

This TMCnet article describes what BelAir is doing these days as a business model. BelAir used to be a Wireless Hardware company. Now, "BelAir attributed this sustained growth to its success in installation, testing, setting up and handing of significant Wi-Fi projects for major Cable Operators, Telecommunications Service Providers, Safety, Security and Defense markets.... The company also said

So a client calls me. An agent sent him an unsolicited quote for 10MB of bandwidth over Ethernet for a ridiculously low quote. Since I have a long history with the client, he offered me the chance to match it and take the order.

So I go back to the carrier and ask for a match. I'm told no. "A competitive quote on the competitor's letterhead is required, which must be 10% to 15% less than the discounted price available with this promotion."

There are a couple of things wrong with this:

1. Why can't I offer the same quote as the other agent -- it's the same carrier?
2. How did tthe other agent get this price without a competitive quote?
3. Why do you want me shopping this client around? If I found a better quote, I would sell him that because you made me jump through these ridiculous loops!

This is the type of policy that drives agents crazy. (Where's the common sense?)  It's one reason that resellers are taking business from the carriers.