Broadband and Utility Interests Continue Clashing Over Contractor Approvals
NCTA is challenging some changes sought by utility company interests to the FCC's pole attachment item on its July agenda. The proceeding continues to attract significant lobbying from broadband and utility advocates (see 2507160024), particularly over contractor approvals.
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In a docket 17-84 filing posted Friday, NCTA said electric utility arguments that the approved contractor list deadline should be limited specifically to contractors in the communications space wrongly claim it erodes the utilities' control over the space. The 30-day contractor approval proposal arose because utilities often fail to respond for months to attached requests about adding a particular contractor, creating a broadband deployment choke point, it said. NCTA also urged that the FCC toss utilities' recommendation that the 15-day notification of whether they can meet the make-ready deadline come after payment of the estimate. The cable ISP group said the completion of the make-ready survey gives utilities all the information needed to determine whether they can complete the work.
Edison Electric Institute pushed back against Altice's suggestion that utilities refund attachers for prepaid, uncompleted survey or make-ready work after missing the 15-day deadline. That would create "unintended financial and operational burdens." Any requirement regarding attachers and utilities meeting about large and midsize orders should also require that attachers provide a description of the deployment areas and routes, EEI said. That information is essential for utilities to align resources and evaluate make-ready needs, it noted. On the 30-day response requirement for additions to the approved contractor list, EEI argued that limiting it to communications space work "ensures that the right of an electric utility to deny access to its poles for reasons of safety and reliability is not in any way restricted."
The FCC's draft process for approved contractor list additions is "unlawful and imprudent," Dominion Energy told the agency. It said the solution to the dearth of contractors that are qualified and readily available to install broadband facilities isn't requiring approval "of unqualified contractors for self-help work on or in the vicinity of electric power facilities."
In another docket 17-84 filing posted Friday, electric utilities that favor limiting the approved contractors language to communications contractors offered the FCC suggested verbiage. That filing came from AEP, Southern Company, Duke Energy, Entergy, Oncor Electric and Ameren.
USTelecom is pushing for clarification of requirements about when utility pole owners have provided notification that they can't meet survey or make-ready timelines. The group recapped its meetings with the offices of the three FCC commissioners and Wireline Bureau staffers, where it also said the agency should make it clear that pole owners can disqualify previously approved contractors for failure to meet safety and reliability standards.