Complete Story
09/08/2016
Why Boring Old Utility Poles Are the Next Broadband Battleground
"Pole shenanigans represent an exercise of raw, entrenched power," complains Harvard professor Susan Crawford in a report examining why the otherwise dull subject of utility pole reform is suddenly so important to those looking for faster, better broadband.
As we've been noting, utilities and telecom companies own a significant chunk of the nation's utility poles, giving them the perfect opportunity to not only impose significant penalties on new market entrants, but bog those entrants down in layers of beurocratic red tape should they look to try and disrupt the traditionally stagnant broadband market.
"Let’s say an investor-owned (private) electric company owns a particular pole, with electrical gear at the top and communications equipment from different companies (AT&T and Comcast, say) beneath that," explains Crawford. "Well, any company wanting to attach additional communications gear to that pole has to notify the electric company and then wait for that company to tell each communications company — one at a time — to send its own truck and its own team to that pole to make room for the new attacher."
"Delay after bonecrushing delay ensues," she notes. "Team after team climbs the pole. Sometimes the pole owner claims it needs an entirely new pole put in to make room for the new attacher. It can take nine months to get a pole ready for new occupancy."
