Google Fiber Wins One-Touch, Make-Ready Ordinance in Nashville
AUSTIN -- AT&T continued to oppose one-touch, make-ready policies Wednesday after the Nashville Metro Council Tuesday gave final OK to the pole-attachments policy aimed at speeding Google Fiber rollout. AT&T previously sued Louisville, Kentucky, for passing a one-touch policy (see 1602260043), and council members and a Google official predicted AT&T litigation before the vote.
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“The ‘One-Touch’ policy is not a good solution for faster deployment of infrastructure,” an AT&T spokesman said Wednesday. The incumbent telco praised Comcast, Nashville Electric Service and the portion of council members “who invested the time to discuss better alternatives and to collect accurate facts.” AT&T didn’t say whether it would pursue litigation.
The council approved by voice vote the Google-backed change to pole attachment process. Opponents made a final bid to postpone the vote, but members defeated the motion to defer 12-26. The ordinance is meant to speed network rollouts by new entrants by allowing all pole attachment work to happen in a single visit by a crew approved by the pole owner. Currently, each existing provider on a pole sends a separate crew to move its line to make room for the new one, a process that Google says causes long delays (see 1609020013). Pole attachment policies are expected to be a continuing challenge for Google as it expands its gigabit network (see 1609070026).
Before the vote, some council members continued to oppose the ordinance, supporting instead a two-meeting deferral to give more time for compromise between Google and incumbent opponents. Citing great risk of litigation, Councilman Bob Mendes said the measure assigns all the upside to Google and all the risk to the city. But supporting members including sponsor Anthony Davis and Jeremy Elrod countered that the measure is critical to increasing broadband competition and speeding deployment of gigabit speeds.
“The policy has to change and it changes tonight,” Davis said before the vote. “This will push Nashville ahead of the curve." A Google spokeswoman applauded the decision. "This will allow new entrants like Google Fiber to bring broadband to more [Nashville residents] efficiently, safely and quickly.”
FCC pole attachment rules don't pre-empt Nashville from adding to them, Google Fiber State Policy Counsel John Burchett said on a panel earlier Tuesday at the NATOA conference here. “In Tennessee, we believe that if we win in the ordinance and AT&T sues,” which Google expects, “we certainly are pretty comfortable legally that the courts and the FCC will agree with us that you are not pre-empted from doing additional rules at the local level.” The issue is different in Louisville because in Kentucky the state rather than the FCC has authority over poles, he said.
Broadband demand has thrust pole attachments into the spotlight, Burchett said. “Broadband economic development doesn’t happen unless you figure out something for the pole attachments.”