The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with plans to remove barriers in wireless backhaul, announcing it plans to address the issue at its Aug. 5 meeting.
The commission is issuing a Notice of Proposed Ruling and a Notice of Inquiry regarding backhaul. Previously, the agency noted as part of its National Broadband Plan that federal laws need to be implemented to help spur broadband deployment.
“Currently, access by service providers to poles can be slow, costly, and mired in long disputes. The National Broadband Plan recognized that one way to lower the costs of telecommunications, cable and broadband deployment and promote competition is to reduce the cost of access to infrastructure,” the FCC said in a press release announcing the further notice of proposed rulemaking as well as an order clarifying some aspects of pole attachments. “The plan found that the impact of utility pole attachment rates on broadband can be particularly acute in rural areas, where there often are more poles per mile than households.”
The FCC ruled that communications providers have a statutory right to use the same space- and cost-saving techniques that pole owners (utility companies) do, and that “attachers” have a right to timely decisions.
As wireless carriers and tower companies deploy DAS solutions to get better coverage, they often run into deployment delays because approving another piece of equipment on a pole is not a priority for utility companies.
Utility companies generally have to allow DAS providers access to the utility pole, but issues crop up around timelines and lease rates. Utility companies can try to charge DAS providers more than they do other tenants on the pole because the DAS provider usually wants to be at the top of the pole. Also, if the pole needs to be modified to accommodate the weight of new equipment, the utility companies can charge the DAS provider to pay for the new pole.
The FCC also released its formal NPRM and NOI on freeing up more Mobile Satellite Services spectrum, also part of the goals of the National Broadband Plan. The agency is planning to add co-primary fixed and mobile allocations to the 2 GHz band and expand secondary market policies and rules.
