FCC poised to make Google Fiber-backed policy new law of the land

Joey Garrison | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Google Fiber adds ultra-fast internet service to more Nashville neighborhoods Single-family homes in Midtown, Edgehill, Sylvan Heights, Acklen Park, Music Row, Hillsboro Village, West End/Vanderbilt and East Nashville now have access to Google Fiber.

After a two-year fight in Nashville between telecommunication giants and the city, the Federal Communications Commission appears ready to make a Google Fiber-backed policy to expedite above-ground internet installation the new law of the land.

It would seemingly make moot a federal judge's ruling last November that the "One Touch Make Ready" policy, approved by the Metro Council in 2016, cannot be applied to utility poles owned by Nashville Electric Service and AT&T.

That ruling, which came after lawsuits from AT&T and Comcast against Metro, claimed that Metro does not have jurisdiction over utility poles and that this authority instead belongs to the FCC.

But a proposed June 12 draft order and declaratory ruling prepared by the FCC, obtained Friday, would adopt a new national One Touch Make Ready process for "the majority" of pole attachments governed by federal law across the country.

It would mark a seismic change granting Google Fiber — which has been rolling out its gigabit-speed fiber internet in Nashville since 2015 — the ability to move ahead with above-ground installations in a one-touch method anywhere.

One-touch refers to the modification or replacement of a utility pole, or lines on the utility pole, in which new providers perform all the work. Traditionally, new providers have been at the mercy of existing providers to move their equipment in order to give them access.

The five-member commission will take up the change at its August meeting. The proposal is outlined in a 102-page order.

"Now, more than ever, access to this vital infrastructure must be swift, predictable, safe, and affordable, so that broadband providers can continue to enter new markets and deploy facilities that support high-speed broadband," the FCC draft order reads.

"In today’s order, we take one large step and several smaller steps to improve and speed the process of preparing poles for new attachments, or 'make ready.'"

Google Fiber, in a statement from a spokesperson, said, the company is "happy to see the FCC recommending new rules that propose to remarkably advance the deployment of high-speed broadband across the United States."

"While we’re still reviewing the language, we’ve long said that a strong One Touch Make Ready process is a common sense policy that will dramatically improve the ability of new broadband providers to enter the market and offer competitive service by reducing delays and lowering costs."

Google Fiber using trenching, not one-touch, in Nashville

In a statement, Metro Department of Law Director Jon Cooper noted that Nashville, in addition to Louisville, Ky., was one of two cities to adopt a One Touch Make Ready ordinance.

"The FCC’s new order would apply nationwide some of the same OTMR principles addressed in the ordinance," Cooper said. "Ideally, the FCC would have acted before the city was faced with this issue, or before the court’s ruling in the subsequent litigation, but the order would certainly clarify the matter going forward."

Joe Burgan, a spokesman for AT&T, said the company is "reviewing the FCC item."

In Nashville, AT&T owns about 20 percent of the poles in Davidson County, and NES owns the remaining 80 percent.

Despite Google Fiber's support of One Touch Make Ready — which passed in the Metro Council by a 32-7 vote in September 2016 — the company has primarily used technology known as "micro-trenching to expand" into Nashville since announcing its expansion to the market in 2015. That was the case before One Touch Make Ready was blocked in court.

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Nevertheless, Google Fiber supporters cheered the FCC's policy shift.

"This is very good news for Nashville and the United States broadband effort in general," said Councilman Anthony Davis, who was among co-sponsors of Nashville's 2016 One Touch Make Ready ordinance. "The FCC in a draft order has made One Touch Make Ready the law of the land. Assuming this passes the vote, our work here in Nashville will be validated as visionary.

"I 100 percent assume AT&T and others may fight this, but the FCC would be making a very good and logical policy move here, helping move the Nation's broadband infrastructure forward dramatically over the coming years."

The council's approval of One Touch Make Ready came as the city's two largest internet providers, AT&T and Comcast, rolled out gigabit speed options for consumers and their new competitor Google Fiber began offering service.

In contrast to a federal judge's decision in Nashville, a judge dismissed a similar suit filed by AT&T against the city of Louisville, determining the city has the right to control its public rights of way.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.