Google Fiber Blasts AT&T Objections to One-Touch, Make-Ready
Google Fiber urged the FCC to reject AT&T objections to a one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) policy recommended last month by the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (see 1801230043). Google Fiber Head-Policy John Burchett and other attorneys met Tuesday with Wireline Bureau and…
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Office of Strategic Planning officials, said a Thursday ex-parte letter in docket 17-84. AT&T’s alternative recommendations mainly benefit AT&T, the Google representatives said. AT&T proposals to require OTMR only for complex work and allow existing attachers to decide if it’s complex “would perpetuate the existing power imbalance, in which incumbent attachers … delay and even prevent deployment of new networks by competitors.” Letting a third-party contractor decide complexity would remove bias, Google officials said. OTMR still could be used for complex work -- just give longer deadlines -- they said. AT&T’s most “self-serving” request is that new attachers honor existing pole riders’ collective bargaining agreements because, in many areas, the only union workers covered by such agreements are AT&T employees, Google representatives said. That also would prevent new attachers from invoking self-help remedies under existing rules, they said. Also, the FCC should reject AT&T calls for broad indemnification by new attachers for losses from OTMR, they said. To spur broad adoption of OTMR, the FCC should remind states they’re not pre-empted from adopting one-touch policies, they said.