Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Chickamauga, Ga., have settled a dispute over one of the oldest problems in the telecom and cable industry: How much should the cable MSO pay to get access to the town's utility poles? At one point, it looked as if Comcast would no longer have access to the poles before the two parties negotiated a deal that would make the annual rate per pole accessed from $7.04 to $16.50 along with a retroactive payment for 2012 through 2014.
The cable industry is not alone in these fights. A number of competitive carriers like First Light Fiber and Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG) have had to deal with similar issues in the towns and cities where they are trying to string fiber along poles to serve a mix of business and residential customers. FierceCable covers the action in this article.