In a complaint filed with the State of New York Public Service Commission, which regulates telecom companies and considers alleged violations of attendant laws, Charter alleges that Verizon is slowing down expansion of its broadband network by being slow to respond to requests from Charter to access and work on utility poles owned by Verizon.
Charter is trying to work through the Public Service Commission’s Pole Attachment Order and Policy Statement on Pole Attachments, which dictates the following timeline:
- A company wanting to access a pole files an application for a pole attachment permit, which the pole owner has five days to process.
- After processing a pole attachment permit, the pole owner has 45 days to perform a pre-construction survey.
- Within 14 days of finishing the pre-construction survey, the pole owner has to send a “make-ready work estimate” to the applicant.
- From there the applicant has 14 days to accept the make-ready estimate and pay for the work.
- Once the pole owner has received payment, it has 45 days to perform the work.
There’s another wrinkle. Charter’s ongoing build out is a condition the state imposed last year in approving Charter’s merger with Time Warner Cable. Specifically, Charter is required to “pass an additional 145,000 unserved or underserved premises” by May 18, 2020, according to the complaint. The state wants 25% of the build completed in year one, followed by an additional 25% completion in successive years.
According to detailed reporting in Ars Technica, Charter didn’t meet its year-one completion goal, and, due to that, agreed to pay the state a $13 million fine, $12 million of which it can recoup if it complies with a revised construction timeline.
“Charter’s ability to complete its Network Expansion Plan depends upon its ability to access poles owned by third parties—which, in turn, depends upon those third parties’ meeting their contractual and regulatory obligations to grant such access in a timely manner,” Charter’s attorneys wrote. “As Charter’s implementation of its Network Expansion Plan has progressed, however, the principal barrier Charter has encountered—again and again—is the failure of pole owners to process and respond to Charter’s applications in a timely manner.”
Charter has applied for permits related to more than 55,000 poles. Verizon has conducted pre-constuction surveys and provided make-ready work estimates for 11,199 poles. Charter says it has paid $580,848 to Verizon for make-ready work related to 7.873 poles, and that Verizon has completed make-ready work on 2,795 poles. Charter’s legal counsel concludes that Verizon is depriving New Yorkers of broadband access and creating an anti-competitive business environment.
