Bad Pole-Attachments Policy Slows Nashville Fiber Build, Says Google
Google Fiber urged Nashville residents to support “One Touch Make Ready” pole attachments policy under consideration by the city council. The ordinance would speed the rollout of fiber broadband in the city, the company said in a blog post Thursday.…
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The Nashville Metro Council plans to vote on the ordinance Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CDT at the Metro Courthouse. The meeting will be live-streamed. “We have -- like many of you -- been disheartened by the incredibly slow progress,” Google Fiber Director-National Deployment and Operations Chris Levendos wrote on the blog. He blamed delays on the current make-ready process for pole attachments, in which each existing provider on the pole sends out a separate crew to move its line to make room for a new one. “This may have worked a generation ago when there were only one or two attachers, but it’s extremely time consuming -- not to mention disruptive to residents of Nashville -- to do this with the numerous attachers we have today.” More than half of the 88,000 poles Google needs require make ready work, but only 33 so far are ready to go, said Levendos. The proposed one-touch ordinance would allow the work to be performed in a single visit by a crew approved by the pole owner, he said. “However, some existing providers disagree, and would prefer to keep the current system.” Incumbent telco AT&T recently accused Google of seeking favoritism from governments after running into obstacles deploying fiber (see 1608300057).