The do-over of a settlement resolving a utility pole attachment dispute between Pacific Gas and Electric and Crown Castle is queued up at the California Public Utilities Commission. The original settlement was drafted by administrative law judge Patricia Miles and approved in March. But commissioners reversed the decision due to procedural mistakes, and told Miles to fix those errors try again. She did, and the new draft is the same as the old one.
If approved, the imposed settlement gives PG&E forty five days to “provide a response” to a pole attachment request from Crown Castle. If there’s no response, Crown Castle can go ahead with its proposed work. “Response” is not defined, but typically it means a yes or no answer, including any specs for work that’s needed to make the pole ready for a new line to be attached. Whether PG&E’s lawyers go with the typical meaning or try to craft one of their own remains to be seen.
The draft also bakes in the rejection of Crown Castle’s original request to be allowed to buy attachment space on PG&E’s poles, rather than just lease it. PG&E’s practice is to either sell ownership of the entire communications zone – the segment of the pole that’s high enough off the ground and sufficiently beneath electric lines – or lease it by the foot. Typically (there’s that word again) AT&T or another incumbent telco buy the entire zone and manage it under private joint pole rules that are, in theory, friendlier to telecoms companies. Crown Castle wanted those privileges for its one-foot of pole space, but didn’t want the responsibility of managing the entire zone.
PG&E opposes the changes proposed by Miles. It doesn’t like the way it was handled – the dispute between the companies was fast tracked as an arbitration, rather than a typical, and lengthy, litigation – and it objects to what it characterises as special treatment given to Crown Castle.
Crown Castle generally endorsed Miles’ decision, albeit after making clear that they think they should have been given the right to buy space by the foot on poles, and after asking for one change – removal of a requirement that they provide two days notice to PG&E before doing work on poles.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the proposed settlement at its meeting next week, but don’t be surprised if it gets bumped. PG&E and Crown Castle have one more round of comments to file, and if any of their arguments gain traction with Miles or commissioners, then new language would have to be drafted.