The FCC is currently getting public feedback about the possibility of regulating Internet service providers under Title II of the Communications Act. Cable companies are stridently opposed to such rules, but a relatively new competitor in the space, Google, sees an opportunity.
In Google's public comment, filed yesterday with the FCC, the company emphasizes that any such regulation must be careful to confer the benefits of such regulation along with the responsibilities.
The benefit most interesting to Google? Access to utility poles and other infrastructure.
"As noted, the Commission has recognized that access to poles, ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way owned or controlled by utilities is essential for broadband deployment," writes Austin Schlick, Google's director of communications law. "Forbearance from allowing [broadband Internet] providers access to available infrastructure under Section 224 would... maintain[] a substantial barrier to network deployment by new providers such as Google Fiber."
The short four-page comment doesn't actually say whether Google supports Title II or not. The Wall Street Journal, which reported on Google's filing earlier today, noted that Google has had trouble getting access to utility poles as it creates its Google Fiber network. AT&T gave Google some trouble over pole access in Austin, Texas.
"If Title II gives Google pole access, then it might really rock the world with broadband access," former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt told the WSJ.
Google declined to comment on the filing.
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