Sometimes grand visions, say the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, can depend on something as basic and overlooked by the lay person as a utility pole.
Think about it: to wire up the country with high-speed fiber, carriers need quick access to utility poles.
The Communications Act as amended in 1996 weighs in on this matter, calling for “nondiscriminatory access to any pole, duct, conduit, or right-of-way owned or controlled by it.”
Think of it as net neutrality for wiring.
The issues here are not as openly contentious as neutrality within the wires, but carriers have for years complained about the difficulties in negotiating with the pole owners, mostly electric utilities.
Their main gripes have been the time it takes and also the arcane payment structure set by by the FCC for the rates that owners could charge.
As you might imagine, bureaucracies from electric companies clashing with their counterparts at Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, et al. is not a pretty sight. Disputes would end up with the FCC or worse, taken to the courts especially in disagreements over rental charges.
FCC’s new pole attachment schedule.
Yesterday, the FCC commissioners approved new rules that establish a 4-stage paperwork process— you knew this wasn’t going to be easy, right?— that limits to 148 days the time between when a request is made for access and when the tech does the actual wiring.
There’s even a nice table in this 144-page FCC order showing all the phase involved.
The FCC also adopted a new rate structure that is generally lower and bears more of a relationship to the maintenance costs absorbed by the utilities.
Wait a second, where have I heard these kinds of arguments and proposals before?
In reading the order and the historic background, the poles owners sound an awful like the carriers when it come to their concerns on return on investment and access rights.
Anyway, this order was unanimously approved, and it can only do good.
Unless a utility decides to sue.
Related articles
- FCC Pole Order (fcc.gov)
