New Entrants Supportive, Incumbents More Concerned about FCC OTMR Pole-Attachment Draft

Most parties we queried doubted the FCC would rework the draft, with some citing the potential for tweaks. "It's pretty baked," said a communications industry official. "I think the debate is mostly over OTMR," said a cable lawyer, adding: "Undoing one-touch is going to be really difficult," given a Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee recommendation and technical complexities. "I think OTMR will become effective, with some changes to protect the interests of existing attachers and meet any safety concerns," emailed Andrew Regitsky, CCMI telecom consultant. "I don't expect fundamental changes to the structure of the OTMR proposals, though there are likely to be changes to various aspects," said a broadband industry representative.

A cable official was more circumspect. “It's too soon to know what will change or not," said Steve Morris, NCTA vice president. "We’ve raised some very serious concerns. So we’ll continue to push those concerns and see how that goes. ... We’re particularly concerned about the lack of a contract between a new and old attacher." New and old attachers have agreements with pole owners that spell out the terms, but OTMR could effectively bypass those, he said, contrasting that with rigorous telecom interconnection contract provisions. He said many aspects of the draft order remain controversial with different parties. “We’re hearing a lot from a lot of different people,” said one FCC official. "We’re still reviewing things," said another.

Google Fiber hailed the "robust" OTMR proposals aimed at streamlining the movement of wires to accommodate new lines. The company "supports the draft item without any changes and noted it believes the item is consistent with BDAC recommendations proposed by the BDAC in January, particularly with respect to the question of indemnification," said a filing in docket 17-84 on meetings with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and the three other commissioners: "Mandatory indemnification is unnecessary because existing attachers have sufficient recourse under state law" and because "mandatory indemnification will increase new providers’ risk profile."

The OTMR proposals "will speed the process and reduce costs for pole attachments, improving the ability of new broadband providers to enter the market and offer competitive services," said Incompas on meeting a Pai aide. "The current process of multiple touch and multiple truck-rolls to the pole is inefficient." The FBA said it "generally supports" the draft's proposed pole-attachment reforms.

Other voiced objections and sought changes to the draft order. FirstEnergy "views the self-help make-ready construction in the power space as nothing short of a looming disaster," said the company. It said "it's not a question of if or when, but how many" communications workers will be injured or killed under the policy. AEPS and Georgia Power were supportive of OTMR and some other proposals, with certain concerns, including that a proposed "rule requiring electric utilities to estimate communications space make-ready [costs] just doesn't make sense."

NCTA expressed particular concern OTMR proposals will "jeopardize the safety and reliability of existing cable networks by requiring that existing attachers surrender complete control over work on, and relocation of, their networks to a new attacher, but not require the new attacher to take complete responsibility for its work," said filings (here, here) on meetings it, Cox Enterprises and Charter Communications had with aides to Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "OTMR will not result in make-ready that can be performed by a single crew in a single outing because existing attachers will need to send crews on three separate occasions (initial survey, performance of make-ready, post make-ready inspection) to protect the integrity of their networks."

"A transition period to implement the new timelines is warranted," said AT&T, suggesting rule changes shouldn't take place for 12 months, with an additional six months to modify estimate and invoice systems. It made other proposals, including on make-ready estimates and invoices, new attacher simple make-ready determinations, and overlashing. Comcast voiced concern about draft paragraph 13, which "would seem to encourage states to act outside the rules the Commission is adopting."

CenturyLink backed codification of overlashing precedent, with concerns about pre-notification requirements, the proposed mandatory OTMR process "even for simple make-ready," and possible shortcomings with a proposal to drive down ILEC attachment rates through a rebuttable presumption, it said on meetings with the Pai aide and Wireline Bureau staffers. ACA backs the pole-attachment proposals overall, with edits to ensure rules "are clear, complete, and faithfully follow the intent and text" of the order.

The Communications Workers of America plans Thursday to deliver petitions signed by 9,000 members "concerned about the loss of good jobs from radical OTMR," emailed Debbie Goldman, telecom policy director.