Google Fiber has been battling AT&T over access to utility poles for a few years now. During a dispute in Austin, Texas late in 2013, AT&T said it could deny access to its poles because Google wasn't a "qualified" telecom or cable provider.

Further Reading AT&T sues Louisville to stop Google Fiber from using its utility poles

Things have gone a bit smoother since then because the companies signed a nationwide agreement granting Google Fiber access to AT&T poles on a city-by-city basis. But in Nashville, Tennessee, Google Fiber construction has stalled partly because the new ISP still has problems getting access to AT&T poles. AT&T confirmed to Ars earlier this month that the terms of the previous nationwide agreement cover Nashville, but it declined to explain why there are still holdups.

An AT&T executive has now detailed the telco's objections in an interview with FierceTelecom. Google Fiber has been making mistakes in engineering drawings that it needs to submit before attaching fiber to AT&T poles, according to Joelle Phillips, president of AT&T Tennessee.

FierceTelecom reported:

“We have had some problems in that part of the process,” Phillips said. “Their drawings frequently would not engineer the job in the way we think is appropriate.” Phillips added that sometimes the issues are as simple as “they have our lines too low to meet the national safety code.”

Most of the poles are owned by Nashville Electric Service, the local utility, while AT&T is the second biggest owner of utility poles in the city.

AT&T’s review process apparently ensures that Google Fiber doesn’t provide bad information to the contractors who install new lines. AT&T also receives payments for access from Google Fiber.

“We have a contract that has a couple of 45-day intervals in it so I don’t know how they can be surprised by how long it’s taking us to complete the work based on what the contract says,” Phillips said.

We contacted Google Fiber about AT&T’s comments today but the company declined to provide a statement. Negotiations Wednesday failed to produce a settlement.

Google Fiber has been pushing for a local "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance to speed up construction. One Touch Make Ready policies let a single company—in this case, Google Fiber—make all of the necessary wire adjustments itself without having to wait for incumbent providers to send construction crews.

AT&T opposes the ordinance, saying it could “put service reliability and public safety at risk.”

Nashville isn’t the only city where AT&T and Google Fiber are still fighting over pole access. The government in Louisville, Kentucky passed a One Touch Make Ready ordinance, but AT&T has sued in an attempt to stop it. AT&T said it would likely sue if a similar rule is passed in Nashville.

Google Fiber is considering using wireless technology instead of fiber to speed up future deployments. But the ISP may be in trouble: A report in The Information yesterday claimed that Google Fiber has fallen well short of subscriber goals and that Alphabet CEO Larry Page has ordered staff cuts.

Light Reading says it has a source who says that “claims of drastic job cuts at Google Fiber are false.” But Google Fiber spokespeople have declined to make any comment publicly on whether the report of pending staff cuts is inaccurate.