USTelecom Says Survey Shows Need for FCC Pole-Attachment Changes; Verizon Pushes One Touch
USTelecom cited a survey in seeking new FCC "reforms" to pole-attachment regulations. A survey of incumbent telco members shows the FCC "should move forward with its proposal to create a presumption that ILECs are entitled to competitively neutral rates when…
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attaching to investor-owned utility (IOU) poles, which in turn will remove significant barriers to broadband infrastructure deployment," said the group's filing in docket 17-84 Tuesday. "ILECs remain at a significant rate disadvantage, despite the commission's 2011 reforms," said an attached report on the 2017 survey, following up on a 2008 survey. It said the new survey shows: "1) the rate goals for ILECs set in the Commission’s 2011 Pole Attachment Order remain unrealized; 2) due to the continuing disparity between IOUs and ILECs in pole ownership, ILECs remain in a lopsided bargaining position; and 3) significant disparities remain in pole attachment rates paid by ILECs to IOUs and those paid by CLEC and cable broadband competitors to ILECs." Separately, Verizon pushed its "one-touch, make ready" (OTMR) pole-attachment proposal "to allow attachers, as well as pole owners, the option to use pole-owner-approved contractors to coordinate and do all work to add a new attachment or perform other make-ready work." On a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, the telco said, "Instead of multiple parties performing sequential make-ready work on the pole, a new attacher could use a single pole-owner-approved contractor to complete all of the work at one time. OTMR thus replaces multiple truck rolls with one, thereby speeding the attachment timeline and reducing aggregate make-ready costs."