High speed internet is destroying neighborhoods

by
in internet on (#15YCE)
The epicenter of internet construction nightmares for homeowners is on Lambs Lane in Southeast Austin, where last October a flash flood allegedly caused by Google's construction crews blocking nearby storm drains brought two feet of water into the home of Arnulfo and Dolores Cruz, causing $100,000 in damages. Hundreds of other complaints cite yard and property damage, trespassing, and construction vehicles blocking access to driveways.

Residents cannot get compensation until they find out which of a litany of contractors and subcontractors working in the area dumped giant piles of dirt on their front lawns, dug open holes or trenches and left them uncovered, or used their yards to store construction equipment and supplies without permission. With Google, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable all upgrading infrastructure, it is difficult to determine who is responsible for what. That makes assigning responsibility for damages very difficult. In some neighborhoods, electric and water lines were severed by construction crews as well. Some residents have even resorted to calling police when crews trespass repeatedly on private property without the courtesy of prior notification or identification.

http://stopthecap.com/2016/03/01/google-fibers-contractors-create-headaches-austin-residents/
Reply 10 comments

I thought we had it bad here (Score: 1, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-04 08:25 (#15Z3M)

In Dunedin, New Zealand, we "won" a marketing campaign called Gigatown. It was supposed to present us with the fastest internet in the southern hemisphere, we would have gigabit and we would have it first. Nobody else would have it until well after we did.
It turns out that the competitors of the company installing it have finished a half dozen towns, at least one of them much bigger than Dunedin, and the company installing it here - Chorus - have completed installation in a bunch of smaller towns. I'm told by a local electrician that Chorus are doing a terrible job, instead of doing fibre to the door of each house they're splitting a fibre cable between houses, something which they'll have to redo across the entire nation in a few years, and are refusing to guarantee their connection speeds with some people experiencing xDSL-like speeds.
Anyway, we've got construction crews running up and down the street, stereos blaring from very early in the morning until the end of the day, digging up holes, blocking roads, low speed zones, that kind of thing. It's annoying as all hell, but nowhere near as bad as that crap!

Re: I thought we had it bad here (Score: 1)

by wilson@pipedot.org on 2016-03-04 08:45 (#15Z4R)

Well FTTC (fiber to the cabinet) is much more common than FTTH (fiber to the home). It's not an issue per se, it can still deliver speeds of 100Mb/s - 400Mb/s depending on the configuration. They don't use just one cable though (not because of the speed, the theoretical capacity of a fiber cable is somewhere north of 1 Pb/s, well above of what your ISP will power it with), the reason why they use multiple cables is because fiber cable is quite fragile and you don't want to end up redoing miles of cabling because you were stupid enough to just use 1 cable. It seems to me that your local electrician might be exaggerating the story.

Re: I thought we had it bad here (Score: 2, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-04 21:47 (#161H2)

We're supposed to get fibre to the home, rather than just the cabinet. My brother's neighbours get 800 megabits, he only gets 250 on a good day. If he turns on his broadband Sky, which his ISP claim won't impact his network speeds at all, he drops down to 50 megabits or less. (I suspect he's mixing up connection speed, and network transfer rates.)

Our ISP is a state-owned one, who were well known for shady deals and typical big-business reasoning. Their CEO went on TV around 2008 and complained that opening up the market to competition was unfair, because they'd be forced to compete in areas where they made the largest profits and that just wasn't fair. Didn't even try to disguise what she was saying.

Wow (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-04 08:58 (#15Z5R)

Here in Aus we can only afford for one company in the entire island to do this work, badly: the NBN! Trying to install a fibre network in AU since 2009 (and failing big time!)

Re: Wow (Score: 2, Funny)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-03-04 23:21 (#161RK)

Here in Aus we can only afford for one company in the entire island to do this work, badly: the NBN! Trying to install a fibre network in AU since 2009 (and failing big time!)
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a kangaroo pouch full of hard drives, hopping across the outback...

Re: Wow (Score: -1, Offtopic)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-06 21:45 (#166Z5)

that's NOTHING! I carry around 5 256GB flash drives and 1 3TB hard drive IN MY RECTUM!

Re: Wow (Score: -1, Offtopic)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-07 22:13 (#16ANX)

The war did strange things to us all, son. I carried this gold watch...

BS (Score: 3, Informative)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2016-03-07 14:51 (#1694Z)

It should be easy to pull the work permits that the city issued for all of the work to determine who is at fault. That might be a difficult process, but it can be done.

Re: BS (Score: 1)

by reziac@pipedot.org on 2016-03-14 00:05 (#16ZWT)

Also, if someone parks a vehicle on your property without permission, you can generally get it towed (and impounded) by the city or county at no charge to yourself. In fact, once the cops arrive they won't let the equipment's owner take it without your permission, so it's up to you if you want to punish the culprit: Tow charges and impound fees can total well up in four figures.

Re: BS (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-14 21:57 (#1739K)

Maybe in the US. Not around here. Touch their car and you can be done for vehicle damage.OTOH, push the damn thing into the middle of the road in the middle of the night and it will be gone quickly the next morning.