Legislation — Faster NJ

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State legislation can make a huge difference in the cost to deploy broadband. This is especially true in New Jersey.

In NewJersey there are two main challenges to overcome when building new broadband facilities. First, any overbuilder must license each utility pole, conduit, and duct individually. This means a complicated and expensive process which results in slow deployment and high up-front expenses. In 2021, New York state Senator Michelle Hinchey introduced Senate Bill S7028 which was later substituted by Assembly bill A2396A which requires this permitting process to be done via a blanket agreement for the entire municipality. This has the promise to make a huge difference in the time it takes to gain approval to build new facilities. We have modeled our New Jersey facility permit legislation on Sen. Hinchey’s bill. Another benefit which significantly helps the deployment of new broadband facilities is that the new attacher no longer bears the entire burden to replace the pole if it is not compliant with current safety or industry standards. Today in NJ, the new attacher has to bear 100% of this cost that be up to $10,000 or more per pole if it has many electrical and communications attachments.

The second challenge results from the “make-ready” work required once permission to use a pole has been obtained. There are certain physical restrictions and standards which must be followed for all utility poles including the distance above the road and the distance from the high voltage electrical lines. To make room for new lines, existing attachments sometimes need to be moved up or down. If five utilities are located on a pole, all five utilities must move their lines and bill the new attacher for the work done. This is obviously a time consuming and expensive process. The solution to this is “One-Touch Make Ready” (“OTMR”) where a single company moves all facilities in a single trip.

There are two ways to implement OTMR. Under the guidelines of the Federal Communications Commission, states are presented with two options for the regulation of their utility poles. They can either pass legislation recognizing the right of the FCC to regulate their utility poles, or states can form their own regulatory agencies and maintain their right to self-regulate their utility poles. The states under the FCC regulatory regime are covered by FCC-18-111A1 “THIRD REPORT AND ORDER AND DECLARATORY RULING” which covers the rules for OTMR in states which have opted to have the FCC regulate their utility poles. The 9th circuit reviewed the ruling and upheld all requirements except two of the FCC's three criteria for preempting state and local regulation of wireless equipment aesthetics which is not really relevant to our goal of furthering wired broadband in New Jersey. DWT has two excellent blog articles explaining the Third Order post-9th circuit ruling and the changes due to the 9th circuit case.

According to the Federal Communications Commission in 2016, under current regulatory statutes, localities that reside in states which have forfeited their right to self-regulate their utility poles to the federal government are unable to implement One Touch Make Ready legislation in its current form, but are instead covered by the FCC-18-111A1 rules instead. New Jersey is one of twenty states which maintained their right to self-regulate, and thus can pass their own OTMR legislation. However, they have not done so. This means that the benefits of OTMR are not being felt in New Jersey yet. We urge the NJ Board Of Public Utilities and/or the legislature to remedy this shortfall to enact OTMR rules to help accelerate broadband in New Jersey.

Faster New Jersey

BROADBAND FOR ALL

www.fasternj.org

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