[1st-mile-nm] Intro and pole attachment question

[Ovidiu Viorica]

Hi Brian,

Our team (Public School Facilities Authority in collaboration with other state agencies – PED, DOT, DoIT) has been working with schools (K12) for a number of years on broadband infrastructure upgrades statewide. This work is primarily for schools and libraries, leveraging federal (E-rate) funding, although we try to find additional partnerships for our projects.

Pole attachments have been and continue to be an obstacle.

To summarize, here are some of the challenges:

1.       Pole owners often don’t have the resources to respond to requests for pole attachments in a timely manner (permits, engineering, pole replacements, make ready etc…).

2.       There is no consistency in the process/approach from pole owners.

3.       There is lack of transparency for the process and for the fees that can be applied by pole owners.

4.       It is very difficult to get existing installations (other operators’ facilities already attached) into compliance – before new permits are issued.

5.       Etc…

These hard to predict high costs or extensive delays (or both) often stop or cancel already funded projects. That is highly unfortunate, knowing how badly needed this work is (and the funding is really hard to get…).

We can have a separate conversation about the topic.

Thanks for your work on this.

Best Regards,
Ovidiu

Ovidiu Viorica
Broadband & Technology Program Manager
New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority
Cell:  505-270-1355
Email:  oviorica at nmpsfa.org<mailto:oviorica at nmpsfa.org>
Web:   www.nmpsfa.org<http://www.nmpsfa.org/>

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From: 1st-mile-nm <1st-mile-nm-bounces at mailman.dcn.org> On Behalf Of Harris, Brian, PRC
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2020 2:17 PM
To: 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
Subject: [1st-mile-nm] Intro and pole attachment question

​Brian Harris here.  I think I know a fair number of people on this list, having worked in telecom regulation for many years.  Currently I work for the NM Public Regulation Commission advising Chairperson Fischmann.

I've been reading through the FCC's 2018 R&O Infrastructure and it's had me thinking about pole attachment law and policy and wondering if current law is impeding deployment of additional high speed internet (broadband) infrastructure.  Have there been access issues?  Make ready issues?  Trouble finding ownership of the facility?

I'd also be interested in hearing about other infrastructure deployment issues that might be impeding the roll out of ubiquitous broadband.

Brian Harris​
505-216-8569
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