Broadband Companies Laud Calif. OTMR Plan
The telecom industry pressed for one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) in comments received Thursday at the California Public Utilities Commission. However, union workers and the CPUC’s enforcement division continued to cite safety concerns about the proposal in docket R.17-06-028. The CPUC may vote Oct. 20 on the proposed decision (PD) to update pole attachment rules (see 2209160074).
The proposal to revise right-of-way rules would reduce broadband deployment lag, said the California Cable and Communications Association. “CCTA members routinely encounter significant delays from pole owners.” CCTA sought some tweaks, including clarification that make-ready includes modifications to support structures, “such as trussing, installation of extension arms, or pole-top attachments, that expand the capacity of existing poles without replacing them.”
“These rules provide much needed and important revisions in the pole attachment process, which will eliminate barriers to competition and broadband deployment, while ensuring safety and reliability of services in California,” Verizon said. The draft fully addresses safety issues raised by some parties, said the carrier, saying OTMR benefits safety including because it will bring more communications to areas with high fire risk, it said. The draft resolves many safety concerns raised before, agreed the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office, also supporting adoption.
The CPUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division disagreed. “SED recognizes and appreciates that the PD includes safety-related modifications to the OTMR Staff Proposal, such as provisions requiring attacher and utility adherence to General Order (GO) 95, Rule 31.1 rules for internal design, construction, and maintenance in the application and review process,” the division said. “However, the need for evaluation of potential safety impacts of OTMR remains unaddressed.” SED recommends a pilot OTMR program to better assess safety concerns.
“The PD doesn’t come close to adequately addressing the safety-related concerns in the record,” said Communications Workers of America and Coalition of California Utility Employees. If the CPUC proceeds anyway, it should modify the order to reduce risks, they said. The union proposed changes including to prohibit attachers from working above the communications space, require attachers to use utility-vetted contractors, require contractors to prove they're insured, create a public database for contractor verification and have a penalty system.
The OTMR draft also got support from an ILEC coalition including AT&T, Frontier Communications and Consolidated Communications. While it “does make some minor changes to the OTMR Requirements as adopted by the FCC, those changes do not undermine the benefits derived from adopting pole access provisions that parallel federal requirements,” the incumbents said. The CPUC should adopt the draft, agreed Sonic Telecom.
Pacific Gas and Electric “supports facilitating the prompt and efficient attachment of communication facilities to existing overhead structures,” the power company said. PG&E recommended giving utilities one year to implement the rules. The proposal doesn’t include a timeline, but the new rules “will result in substantive changes to the historic practices of accommodating pole attachments to existing overhead structures that will take time to implement,” it said.
PG&E urged the CPUC to increase financial penalties for unauthorized pole attachments to at least $2,500 per violation, from $500 as proposed. Southern California Edison agreed with increasing penalties and giving electric companies at least 12 months to implement OTMR rules.