AT&T, Comcast win final court ruling against Nashville’s broadband competition law

AT&T and Comcast have solidified a court victory over the metro government in Nashville (TN), nullifying a rule that was meant to help Google Fiber compete against the incumbent broadband providers. The case involved Nashville's "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance that was supposed to give Google Fiber and other new Internet service providers faster access to utility poles. The ordinance let a single company make all of the necessary wire adjustments on utility poles itself instead of having to wait for incumbent providers like AT&T and Comcast to send work crews to move their own wires. 

But AT&T and Comcast sued the metro government to eliminate the rule, and won a preliminary victory in November when a US District Court judge in Tennessee nullified the rule as it applies to poles owned by AT&T and other private parties. The next step for AT&T and Comcast was overturning the rule as it applies to poles owned by the municipal Nashville Electric Service (NES), which owns around 80 percent of the Nashville poles. AT&T and Comcast achieved that on Jan 5 with a new ruling from US District Court Judge Aleta Trauger. The Nashville government isn't planning to appeal the decision.