atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Outside Plant OSP Construction Utility pole replacement and ownership

Question for those who know:

When a shared access utility pole gets replaced (lets say it was owned by the power company as an example), the new pole is dropped next to the old one, poco moves their attachments over to the new pole and chops the top off the pole, leaving telco and cableco to move their stuff over... who owns the old pole? If the poco in this example, do the other utilities still pay an attachment fee on the old pole? or would the poco consider the old pole abandoned?

No particular reason I am asking. Just wondering. Around my parts, Fairpoint seems to be the slowest to move their attachments over to a new pole. Sometimes years if ever would they move their attachments over to a new pole, even ones where it is the simplest operation (new pole directly next to the old pole, plenty of slack, etc). I wondered if there was no financial reason to move over if the pole was abandoned and they didn't have to pay an attachment fee.

As far as I know whoever owned the old pole still owns it and is responsible for removing it once everything is off of it. I don't think it matters what pole (old or new) Fairpoint has their attachments on, they only pay for the one pole. I think they are dragging their heels because it costs them money to send a crew out. Also, they may be short on manpower or have to sub it out.

-Hal

In the old days when pole markers were numbers that were nailed to wooden poles, in the case of shared poles, the name of the company that set the pole was placed above the others.

Today, at least around these parts, new poles are marked with colored plastic and only by the company that set it. Verizon markers are orange while Eversource uses yellow.

Edison just replaced a bunch of poles in the neighborhood here. Yesterday an Edison SUV stopped in front of my house. One guy got out, grabbed a hammer from the trunk and ran over to the pole and nailed up an identifier.

Sam

Hal is correct. The actual pole owner is responsible for the entire pole down to the last attachment. HOWEVER, here is western PA, we have a unique situation where poles are jointly owned. This has to be a legal and paperwork nightmare. When the involved companies were Bell Telephone and the power company, the common practice was for the power company to do their thing and Bell Telephone would do their transfers and then cut or pull the entire pole out of the ground and carry it away.

Today, the situation is so complicated and confusing, some transfers take years to complete and a public safety issue hangs, (in some cases, literally) for months until all attachments are transferred.

Here is a situation which requires PUC (Public Utility Commission) intervention. There should be a time limit imposed for each attachment to be moved after notification. If the time is passed, the pole owner could move the attachment and back bill the attaching company. If an attachment company knew they would be on the hook to pay the owner to move their junk, I bet this would not be an issue.

Rcaman

With Verizon and at&t running away from copper landline service, how anxious are they to dispatch repair crews especially if there are no active pairs within any of the bundles

I've had a hard enough time trying to get Verizon out to re-hang dangling FiOS splice cases that are so low that a box truck could smack into them.

Here, when the power company owns the pole and gets sick of waiting, they cut the old pole off just below the attachment, rope it off to the new pole then remove the old pole. It's usually Verizon that is the culprit and even so it still can be years before they decide to transfer the attachment and remove the dangling piece of pole.

-Hal

like this:

At least they put a bolt through it. I have seen the cutoff pieces just dangling in mid air. Talk about an accident waiting to happen.

Rcaman

I have seen here that Manitoba Telecom / Shaw Cable / City of Winnipeg traffic Signals move their lines to the new pole in a timely fashion, and it still takes years for Manitoba Hydro to come back and remove the old stub.