Austin may change rules to allow Google to attach fiber to AT&T’s poles

The Austin City Council is expected to vote to force AT&T to allow Google use of its utility poles to install its planned high-speed Google Fiber network in the city.

The proposed action has ruffled feathers with AT&T officials, as the telecommunications company says shouldn’t have to allow the Internet giant access to its poles across the city. But city officials and Google say the proposed ordinance change, which is scheduled to come up before the Austin City Council, would minimize disruptions to city infrastructure as Google beings to implement its network. “We’re not trying to get in and solve a company’s problems for itself. That’s not the purpose,” said Rondella Hawkins, the city of Austin’s telecommunications and regulatory affairs officer. “It’s just that we’re stepping in because we want to minimize the impact to our right-of-way and (avoid) traffic delays. We don’t want additional poles put up in the right-of-way.” The city owns about 80 percent of the utility poles in Austin, with AT&T owning roughly the remaining 20 percent. Those poles are interspersed throughout the city, Hawkins said. The rules change would require utility pole owners to allow all communication services providers to “place attachments … on the user’s poles within the city’s right-of-way on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable and non-discriminatory.” Hawkins said the city believes it has right-of-way authority to change the ordinance. “We don’t want people to put up their own poles,” she said. “We want to avoid anybody putting up redundant utility poles. Could you imagine a city where all the (telecommunications) providers individually have their own utility poles? It would be a mess.”