They did. So now you are free to call Comast or whoever and receive a $250,000 invoice to run wire to and into your 500+ unit building with all the regulation, construction, union politics, city permits, bribes, etc it takes to get there.

These contracts aren't these evil things as much as they are there to recoup investment on the work AT&T put into that building. The neat part is that due to the cost of competitors walking in, the contracts don't even need to exist anymore. Its going to be a hard sell to get Comcast in there when AT&T already has the home field advantage.

I don't know the details, but apparently the deal had something to do with the wiring of the building when it was constructed in 2008. There have been resident meeting discussing the issue, and apparently the only way to support other ISPs is to pay for new separate wiring in the building, which I'm sure the building management will not do (given the housing demand situation in SF).

They did. I, however, also lived in one of those buildings in SOMA for a few years (after '09).