Google Fiber stalls in Nashville in fight over utility poles

Jon Brodkin

Getty Images | aledettaale

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Google Fiber started examining Nashville, Tennessee, for a possible deployment more than two and a half years ago, it confirmed plans to build in January 2015, and it started serving a few apartment and condominium buildings in the city in April of this year. But further progress is being slowed in part by difficulties obtaining access to utility poles, and legislation designed to solve the problem is being resisted by incumbents AT&T and Comcast.

Nashville Scene has a thorough article on the controversy, with quotes from the major players. Google Fiber needs access to thousands of telephone poles and must cooperate with the area's other Internet providers to install their wires. Most of the poles are owned by Nashville Electric Service, the local utility, while AT&T is the second biggest owner of utility poles in the city.

When Google notifies the owner that it needs access to a pole, the owner "will then notify each telecom company that it needs to send a crew to the pole—one after another—to move their equipment and accommodate the new party," Nashville Scene wrote. "The process can take months, even if contractually mandated time frames are followed. Google Fiber officials and operatives working on their behalf suggest that’s not always the case."

To speed things up, Google Fiber is pushing for a "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance, which is being sponsored by East Nashville Metro Councilman Anthony Davis. One Touch Make Ready policies let a single company—in this case, Google Fiber—make all of the necessary wire adjustments itself without having to wait for incumbent providers to send construction crews.

When a similar ordinance was passed to help Google Fiber in Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky, AT&T sued the local government to stop it. AT&T is ready to fight in Nashville as well, and it argues that the proposal could disrupt its contract with its workers' union.

“While we have not seen the proposed ordinance, we are concerned that a make-ready ordinance would interfere with our contractual commitment to have our skilled employees represented by the Communications Workers of America perform make-ready work on our behalf,” an AT&T spokesperson told Nashville Scene. “Beyond that, we have serious concerns with other companies being allowed to perform work on our facilities without providing us notice, which could put service reliability and public safety at risk in some circumstances. Additionally, jurisdiction to regulate pole attachments rests with the FCC, and municipalities have no authority under federal or state law to enact the ordinance being proposed here.”

Comcast argued that the "appropriate next step" is a meeting involving the utility and telecom providers to review the existing process and discuss possible methods of improvement. "This should be accomplished prior to any proposed legislation," Comcast said.

AT&T lobbyists have been busy in Tennessee this year, helping to defeat a proposal to expand municipal broadband.

It's not clear when the One Touch Make Ready proposal will be taken up by the metropolitan council, but Google Fiber hopes it does so quickly. Google Fiber regional policy head Amol Naik said the proposed policy "can simplify and expedite a big infrastructure effort like Google Fiber, reducing community disruption and promoting public safety," and would be "a significant step to bringing faster, better broadband to [Nashville's] residents."

AT&T pointed out to Ars that it has an agreement with Google Fiber allowing access to utility poles "in several markets." AT&T also referred back to a previous statement that said, "We were the first provider to work with Google Fiber to grant them access to AT&T utility poles. We already have a national agreement with Google to give them access on a city-by-city basis. We’re glad to grant them access to our poles like we have for others, but Google attempting to change the rules for their benefit is ridiculous."