UPDATE The FCC’s Rapid Broadband Assessment Team created to help resolve pole attachment disputes is up and running. The intra-agency group is charged with prioritizing and expediting the resolution of disagreements that impede or delay broadband deployment. It also provides carriers with information about the status of the utility poles they plan to use as they map out their broadband builds.
The agency voted to create the rapid response team in December 2023, Inside Towers reported. The group wasn’t active until the Office of Management and Budget completed reviewing information collection requirements that the Wireline Competition Bureau determined was needed.
The point of the Rapid Broadband Assessment Team is to make dispute resolution for pole attachments faster, more transparent and more cost-effective, officials said during the December 2023 unanimous vote. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the changes should lead to few pole attachment disputes and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called them “a good, common-sense landing spot.”
The FCC also updated its policies “to make clear when an attacher does not have to pay the full cost to replace an existing pole,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the time. The Commission has previously adopted shot-clocks and one-touch make-ready to streamline the pole attachment process.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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