The 726 AT&T utility boxes planned to be installed on sidewalks around the city and necessary to expand the telecom company's home TV and Internet service in San Francisco, were blocked by a Superior Court Judge this week. Judge Harold Kahn ruled that a lawsuit brought by a slew of San Francisco Neighborhood groups had a "fair argument" for demanding an environmental impact review.

Local customers eager for another mega-corporate alternative to Comcast cable and Internet service might remember that after much discussion, the Board of Supervisors narrowly approved moving forward with the network expansion without doing a full environmental review. Naturally, that didn't go over well with NIMBY groups like San Francisco Beautiful and San Francisco Tomorrow who like to use the time consuming reviews to keep such things out of their backyard (and off our sidewalks, in this case) for a little bit longer.

As the San Francisco Business Times points out, San Francisco is the only major California city without U-verse TV and Internet service. If the outcome of the lawsuit favors the neighborhood groups and forces an environmental impact review, we're probably looking at least another year or so before the service could begin to roll out.

Previously: Prepare Yourselves for AT&T Cable TV Service, New Obstacles on the Sidewalk
[SFBiz]