In December, the Commission released the final text of the Wireline Report and Order and the Wireline
Federal Notice of Proposed Rule Making, as well as the final text of the Replacement Utility Poles Report
and Order. Infrastructure Orders.
The Commission deleted its request for comment on how utilities treat “service drops” – i.e., connections
from an attacher’s facilities on the poles to the customer’s location. At the same time, it deleted its requests
for comment concerning how overlashing is performed by attachers and treated by utilities, whether to limit
overlashing to “new wires and cables,” and if a new regulatory approach was warranted. Instead, the
Commission now seeks limited comments on its original suggestion that it “codify[ ] its longstanding
precedent regarding overlashing,” adding that overlashing “has substantial competitive effects, ultimately
leading to greater deployment and lower prices for consumers,” and “ that any concerns with overlashing
should be satisfied by compliance with generally accepted engineering practices.” This change in direction is
helpful to attachers who, the Commission noted, have been subject to pole owners’ advance approval
requirements despite the Commission’s long-standing practice (upheld in the courts) that “neither the host
attaching entity nor the third party overlasher must obtain additional approval from or consent of the utility
for overlashing other than the approval obtained for the host attachment.” Comments on the FNPRM are due
January 17, 2018. Replies are due February 16, 2018.
Replacement communications poles are still deemed exempt from historic preservation review if they are
no more than 10 percent or 5 feet taller and placed in essentially the same location as the original or
no more than 10’ away. But while the draft item noted that there could be no new ground disturbance
with the replacement pole “either laterally or in depth” “outside previously disturbed areas,” the final text
moves the definition of “ground disturbance” to the paragraph allowing the new pole to be set up to 10 feet
away, which would presumably allow for deeper setting of poles as required, for example, with a 5 foot taller
pole, and “disturbance” of the ground up to 10’ away from the original pole. A literal reading of the prohibition
on “additional ground disturbance” though could still cause some confusion.
Check the info here:
http://snip.ly/83w0e#https://www.broadbandlawadvisor.com/2017/12/articles/broadband-deployment/fcc-releases-text-of-wireless-and-wireline-infrastructure-orders/
FCC Acts to Enable Investment in Next-Generation Networks
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-acts-enable-investment-next-generation-networks-0
