‘Pain, poles and permitting’: What’s bugging broadband providers

If you ask broadband providers about the biggest obstacles to network deployments, permitting roadblocks and pole attachments usually make the top of the list. At the ACA Connects Summit, Metronet CEO Dave Heimbach summed it up as “the three Ps: pain, poles and permitting.” Heimbach said that in many cases utilities are “largely ignoring” the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) rules and regulations about the timeframes in which they have to respond to attachment requests. Another challenge, he went on to say, is when municipalities “just have outmoded and outdated” rules and regulations. “Even assuming we can navigate the electric utility issue on the aerial side, we’re finding ourselves in a pickle oftentimes, either with local permitting authorities or perhaps even the state department of transportation,” said Heimbach. To make matters even more complicated, these entities all have their own shot clocks (i.e. timeframes in which they have to respond to requests).