Chapter 1 – What is Joint Use Asset Management?
Along most roadways and neighborhood streets, between tall city buildings, shops, and businesses is something so crucial to our lives, yet it regularly goes unnoticed: utility and communication infrastructure. Both utility poles and underground conduit house the cables that deliver electric power, broadband connection, cable television, and telephone service. Cables, wires, transformers, and infrastructure equipment distribute new technology and entertainment services. Electric power and communications services keep us connected to our friends, family, and work. Broadband and cable television inform us of current events.
While there are many working parts to keep utility and communications infrastructure operating, there are two main contributors: pole or conduit vault owners, and the attachers who use those poles and vaults to deploy services. The owning and attaching companies must work together to ensure successful operations. Joint Use is the ability to share invested infrastructure between service-deploying companies in a similar geographic area. Instead of one company owning a utility pole and using it for only their services, other providers in the same area can rent out the infrastructure for their facilities as well. This system requires owners and attachers to be in constant contact with one another to keep new and old services running successfully. Multi-step processes are required before attachers can rent pole or vault space from asset owners, including legal permit approval and rental contracts. After attachers are granted a permit, ongoing contract management is required.
The infrastructure (poles and conduit vaults) plus the cables, wires, hardware, and equipment are often referred to as assets.
Utility poles are the field assets we are most familiar with, but below our feet are conduit vaults that contain cables, wires, and hardware as well. These underground spaces are common in suburban neighborhoods and cities. They hide the wires and cables in either manhole or handhole spaces. Handholes and pedestals are typically residential, while manhole spaces are found more frequently in city areas.
The ability to share infrastructure investments has long been viewed as a benefit to both service providers and consumers. With the rapid deployment of broadband across the United States, joint use asset management has changed and is still changing. Joint use was once a simpler endeavor when ownership parity existed between power utilities and telecoms. But as technology and other communication options grow, such as the expansion of CATV and broadband options, the infrastructure landscape has had to adapt accordingly. For attachers, or service providers, it is more realistic and cost-effective to rent space on poles. The space does not exist for every service provider to build or buy their own poles, and the cost to do so would be staggering. On the other end, owners that are required by law to share space on their assets with service providers can also benefit from this arrangement – generating rental revenue by treating these assets as viable real estate.
Chapter 2 – How Does Joint Use Work?
In the past, there were limited entertainment options. There were fewer players in the utility telecom game. Television stations sent signals that were picked up by personal rooftop antennae. The closer one lived to the signaling tower, the better the picture quality and reception. For those who lived far away, they received static connections. Before 1978, space on utility poles was mostly reserved for electric utility and the telephone providers. After 1978, cable companies emerged and changed the game.
Since 2000, with the Internet available to consumers, broadband providers have flourished and thrived, but began to find themselves competing for available asset space. Today, wireless and Wi-Fi providers are have entered the game, causing even greater demand for asset space.
The joint use of infrastructure assets is coordinated in several ways. Some service territories use a policy of joint ownership, in which individual poles are co-owned by several utility companies. In others, the pole ownership is apportioned based on an agreed-upon percentage of the total population of poles. An ownership parity has become the most commonly applied system of the past century, in which agreements set out the overall percentage owned by an electricity provider and an incumbent local exchange communications carrier (ILEC).
Today, municipal, state, and private organizations (such as hospitals and universities) also own poles. Other utilities, such as competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC), cable television providers, and other communications providers, typically do not own utility poles or vaults, finding themselves in the position of attacher, tenant, or occupant; they attach lines to poles or install cables underground in a space owned by another company.
The increased volume of space needed on poles or in vaults by so many types of providers has created difficulties in managing the multitude of permit applications, deployment paperwork, and contracts. Joint Use departments are faced with the challenge of juggling many tasks from many departments. Jointly managing electric utility and communications infrastructure means handling service equipment and contracts of multiple service providers on one piece of infrastructure real estate.
Chapter 4 – Double Poles
The Challenge
Some people call them double poles, others say “double wood” or “buddy poles,” but no matter its name, the problem is the same. The existence of two poles where only one should stand occurs in situations where pole transfer notices were not received, or were overlooked. In some places, this problem has reached epidemic proportions. One Massachusetts newspaper published a double pole picture every week for years to highlight the problem in their community.
With a lifespan of 25-40 years, utility poles (much like the trees they are made from) are subject to rot and decay over time. Even with preservative treatments, environmental factors, climate, and other ecological influences eventually take a toll. Regardless of the reason, when a pole’s time is up and it needs to be replaced, all of the attached lines must be transferred to a new pole. Each company that occupies space on the pole must be sent a “Transfer Notice” from the owning company. Attaching companies are then expected to transfer equipment from the old utility pole to the new. Once the transfers are completed, the old pole should be removed. The process is long, and requires many working parties to cooperate. Often, transfers are so slow that two (or three) poles will often remain where there should only be one.
For pole owners, a double pole is a problem for a number of reasons. Penalties and fines may be associated with the untimely removal of retired poles. Further, not only are double poles an eyesore, but they can block visibility in roadways and rights-of-way, obstructing sidewalks and impeding snow removal in some regions. Old utility poles that remain standing also have the potential to be harmful because of further deterioration in their weakened state, causing them to fail.
The Solution
Timely transfers are the ideal goal for asset owners. The problem with timing is that most owning and attaching companies work out of multiple, disparate systems that cause a multitude of backlogged work. Further, such a multitude of systems makes communication between owning and attaching companies more difficult. Notices go unchecked or unreceived. Internal departments may not have the tools to communicate efficiently.
A joint use management system is the key to proactively moving forward with double pole problems. In a single system, open communication is simple and easy. It allows pole owners to connect with attachers efficiently and maintain an ongoing dialogue about important pole issues. Attachers can also keep utility pole owners updated on the status of transfer work. Owning companies can log and organize this information, which helps to ensure all permits and paperwork are handled properly and on time.
Chapter 5 – Illegal Attachments
The Challenge
The growing number of unauthorized attachments on utility poles, as well as unauthorized occupants in conduit vaults, is a problem in the US. Trespassers forego the standard permitting process to deploy their services quicker and cheaper to local residents. Trespass comes in a variety of forms in many different joint use spaces. Let’s take a look at each.
Handholes
As we learned in Chapter 1, handholes and pedestals are spaces in residential neighborhoods that place service cables underground. In new construction areas, it is no problem for unauthorized companies to physically move conduit and ducts into their own spaces. They illegally use the space to deploy services faster.
Manholes
Manhole spaces are found in cities and some residential areas. Like handholes, they hide the cables that connect the nation underground. Usually, trespassers come in fast and quick to these spaces, leaving behind damage, structural harm, and violations. Unauthorized occupants use additional space in the vault without paying rent. They know that if owners are not doing routine inspections, they are unlikely to get caught. Best practices are not usually followed by unauthorized companies, especially since the vault space is not their own investment. Trespass in manholes creates a domino effect: bad practices by trespassers leave behind violations, structural damage, and unsafe conditions.
Utility Poles
For utility poles, a lack of communication is often the culprit for unauthorized attachments. Given the growing number of attachers, utility pole owners are commonly facing illegal attachers acquiring space on their investment. For poles, this violation is sometimes referred to as bootlegging. Illegal attachments may occur for a variety of reasons, but a lack of communication seems to be the common thread. With so many companies involved—power, telecommunications, CATV, broadband, and wireless—plus the multiple departments from each company that must be engaged in each asset, communication is a growing challenge. Throw in the third-party contractors and linemen that must be involved for each asset, and it’s no surprise that successful coordination and communication is difficult for managing joint use.
The Solution
Unauthorized attachers and occupants can be caught and found through routine inspections of assets. Geo-targeted field audits, in which every pole or vault in a specific area is thoroughly examined, gives owners clear insight into the activity in or on their assets.
To ensure success, owners should hire professionally trained audit teams with previous audit experience. The audit should include records of asset location, asset type, documentation of all attachments or occupants, a thorough safety audit, and structural tests. Depending on whether the space is a pole or a conduit vault, teams should inspect the appropriate details of each structure. An accurate depiction of rentable space for each asset gives owners a chance to use their investment for permitted attachments/occupants. Further, routine audits ensure quality engineering practices for both owners and attachers or occupants.
Asset owners are responsible for every asset they own. Ongoing problems, like trespass, can create detrimental results like structural damage. For field linemen’s safety and for the general public’s safety, audits should be performed routinely. Ongoing inspections are necessary to detect, remediate, and prevent hazardous violations before they occur.
Aside from routine audits, the use of an asset management system is the best way to gain control over assets. The expansion of technology has created a growing attachment conundrum on poles all over the U.S., and likewise technology now allows pole owners and attachers the clarity of every activity on or in their asset space. With an asset management system, owners and attachers can move forward without the hassle of stacks of paper, faxes, and email. See Chapter 9 for more information on a joint use platform.
Chapter 7 – Backlogs
The Problem
As broadband and wireless services grow, keeping up with attachment requests and the mountain of paperwork that comes with them can become a difficult task for pole owners. This creates backlogs.
With requests for attachments adding up, it takes more and more effort for pole owners to stay ahead. The approval process is complex, involving field surveys, inspections, and sometimes make-ready work with site preparation that can take up to 60-90 days (or longer). As a result, backlogs become rapidly unmanageable and the time-to-attach increases. Some pole utility owners are so backlogged that it now takes more than 45 days to simply process requests.1 For this reason, some attachers apply the “don’t ask permission, ask for forgiveness” ideology, and avoid the process altogether, attaching at-will. This, as we have seen, results in a whole other set of problems.
The Solution
With backlogged work being a common problem for asset owners, there must be a solution. Owners may think, “I need to hire more people to process all this paperwork.” And while that may help the situation in the short-term, the amount of work remains the same.
There a few solutions that may help asset owners reduce backlog and stay ahead in the long run:
Keep accurate records. It is important for asset owners to keep correct, historical records of each individual task. While this may seem daunting, it helps streamline joint use activity for the future and simplifies upcoming audits. When asset owners can provide inspection teams with accurate data from the past several years, those teams are well-equipped to inspect more quickly and more precisely.
Employ new technology. Joint use management software allows owners to store all asset data, while also communicating to their internal departments and outside companies (attachers, third-party contractors, and linemen) all in one place.
Communicate. Utility pole owners and conduit vault owners can start conversations, share map locations, and negotiate contacts in a joint use management system. Systems like this make communication efficient and electronic, so new requests can be handled in a timely manner. Owners and their teams can work through any remaining backlog quickly.
Chapter 8 – Routine Inventory
In each previous chapter, a routine inspection of vault and pole spaces is the proactive solution to common challenges.
To recap:
- Regular inspections keep pole and vault data accurate, while uniting joint use departments with billing, finance, operations, engineering, and more. Internal teams can work together to streamline business decisions for all assets.
- Routine inspections keep owners aware of pole and vault issues, including structural damage and violations. When owners know their assets’ problems, they can take action to ensure that field workers and the public are safe.
- Routine inspections reveal asset information that may have not been previously recorded: asset age, location, size, attachments or occupants, and available rental space.
When vault and pole owners conduct routine audits, they can take proactive action when trespass, damage, or violations are found. A managed services and inventory service company should have professionally-trained inspectors with several years of experience. Further, the inspecting company should deliver owners a court-ready closing package for their legal teams when trespass, violations, or damage is found. Inspection teams should itemize the funds that owners are owed for illegal trespass and other violations by third-parties.
