State Officials and Industry Reps Urge Greater Collaboration on Pole Attachments

State broadband regulators and industry officials highlighted efforts at addressing pole attachment processes to facilitate broadband deployment Tuesday. During an FCBA webinar (see 2312130044), some mentioned increased coordination among utilities, attachers and other stakeholders to streamline the process and enable faster deployment. Several highlighted workforce issues as a barrier.

For example, Aryeh Fishman, Edison Electric Institute associate general counsel, called workforce problems the greatest challenge to deployment and facilitating pole attachments. In Kentucky, "the lack of a skilled workforce continues to be an issue," said the state's Public Service Commissioner Mary Pat Regan. Said Vasconi Consulting President Mark Vasconi, "It's an issue that cuts across states" and one to watch with the anticipated "explosion" of pole attachment requests for projects under NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.

NCTA Lead Legislative Counsel Alex Minard said self-help rules offer some assistance, but the lack of enough contractors "is going to be a challenge."

Having authority to regulate pole attachments at the state level has made for a more efficient process in New York, said Brian Ossias, deputy director, Department of Public Service Office of Telecom. It's "always nice to have the FCC baseline," Ossias said, but it requires a "significant amount of technical expertise and there's not a lot of that available to go around ... so we struggle to find enough contractors" to "facilitate these important projects."

The majority of states that regulate their pole attachments "are moving toward the direction of the FCC even after doing deep dives on these issues," said Davis Wright's Maria Browne. Some states will also have success with BEAD because they focused on pole attachment and replacement issues, Ossias said. "That may take many different forms depending on who owns the poles and unserved BEAD-eligible areas," he said, "but the states that focus on this will be the ones that succeed."

California Public Utilities Commissioner Darcie Houck said, "We're going to need to be able to fast track the attachment of poles to meet our broadband goals as our communications infrastructure has grown and diversified." A "significant portion of the broadband infrastructure deployment costs involve installation of cables with access to mounting in some instances," Houck added. She noted that nondiscriminatory access to poles would help reduce deployment costs.

Another concern is timely access to poles and getting applications processed promptly, Fishman said (see 2408120038). The "one big issue" is "making sure that we are on the same page" about how much work is needed for a pole attachment compared with what can be done and what is available, Fishman said, also noting concerns about cost. Costs, especially for replacements "skyrocketed recently," he said. USTelecom Senior Vice President-Policy and Advocacy Nirali Patel said, It's "important for providers to continue with negotiated timelines" because the "operational reality" is that make-ready is more time-consuming as projects grow in size.