Google Fiber Knocks NCTA Make-Ready Pole-Attachment Plan as Largely Status Quo
Google Fiber further criticized NCTA's make-ready pole-attachment proposal, calling it "not very different from the status quo." NCTA's defense of its "Accelerated and Safe Access to Poles plan" (see 1804050056) "raises numerous points that are essentially red herrings, and distract…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
from the core issues," Google filed, posted Friday in docket 17-84. It noted the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee's "one-touch, make-ready" recommendation to improve the pole-attachment process. "What NCTA’s proposal does is double-down on the existing, multi-party process," the company said. "Stakeholders agree that the current make-ready process is untenable. ... Proposals that do nothing more than reduce timeframes without changing the fundamental approach to preparing poles for new deployments do almost nothing to resolve those problems. One-touch make-ready, on the other hand, represents an efficient use of resources speeds deployment, makes costs lower and more predictable, and reduces the opportunity for injury and property damage." NCTA emailed that its "proposal accelerates the timeline for all parties to attach while still preserving the rights of existing attachers. Unfortunately Google continues to pursue an extreme agenda that would deprive existing providers of control over their facilities while failing to hold new providers accountable for any harm that they cause.” The Fiber Broadband Association (here) and AT&T (here and here) discussed their proposals last week.