Utility poles are now a battleground between Google Fiber and incumbent broadband providers. In Nashville, Tennessee Google is now advocating for a new law that would require utility pole owners to agree that one contractor can do all of the work required to make the poles ready for Google Fiber. Incumbents oppose that effort. Louisville, Kentucky already passed a similar law, but AT&T is seeking to overturn the move in court.

AT&T is mocking Google Fiber over rumors that it's looking to scale back ambitions to develop Gigabit broadband networks. "Google Fiber will no doubt continue its broadband experiments, while coming up with excuses for its shortcomings and learning curves," writes AT&T's Joan Marsh in a blog post. "It will also no doubt continue to seek favoritism from government at every level." But AT&T's "lecture on level playing fields may ring a bit hollow," writes DSLReports. "This is, after all, a company that has lobbied for more than a dozen state-level laws that protect the company from market evolution and real …