Google Fiber Prods FCC on One-Touch, Make-Ready Proposal for Pole Attachments

attachments on a pole to use a contractor approved by the pole owner to perform all work on existing attachments needed to make the pole ready for its new attachments," said a company filing Monday in docket 17-84 on meetings with staffers of all three commissioners and the Wireline Bureau to discuss comments made on wireline infrastructure deployment (see 1706160041). Google said OTMR has broad support from "utilities to Verizon," with the chief opponents being cable companies that seemingly are concerned about third parties performing work on their facilities. The company believes its proposal should alleviate those concerns -- because pole owners would approve third parties -- and would address another concern of OTMR opponents by making the approved contractor the one that determines whether make-ready work is "simple or complex." Proposed alternatives wouldn't work because they don't address the fundamental sequencing problem of make-ready work, it said. Frontier Communications said "rationalizing ILEC pole attachment rates would encourage broadband deployment and remove unnecessary competitive distortions," said a filing on a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and an aide. A Loudoun County, Virginia, filing said it's "opposed to any regulatory changes that limit local land use authority and impose unreasonable mandates, as proposed" by an FCC notice (see 1704200046).