ISE Magazine, December 2019

ISE ICT SOLUTIONS EDUCATION 12 VISIONARIES ROUNDTABLE We run into that all of the time I dont hold it against them Because now that deploying fiber is ramping up from service providers overbuilders and wireless companies the municipalities are like Wait This is too much We didnt have this in our budget Lets be honest If we plan to do underground construction it negatively impacts their locating costs They say We didnt budget for all this locating and youre breaking us So theyre not real inclined to do things quickly At times weve asked Hey how much staff can you add to help us go faster They respond by saying they have all the staff they want In addition theres enough public stir about 5G that every municipality wants to be involved with what can be put in the right of way and what it needs to look like For example were located where theres a lot of snow and the ground freezes In order for us to have a network that we can support over the winter we have access points above ground in pedestals Recently a number of residents in one community decided they dont want those peds in the right of way which happens to be in their yards They want the access point flush mounted But they dont understand what happens if there is a problem with the network during the winter months and we cannot fix or restore service to customers Daniel Ashton CenturyLink And if they call with a problem in the winter you cant really say Sorry Call me in the spring Scot Bohaychyk Clearfield Exactly Ben Goth TDS Telecom Or we have to get out the warming blankets and hope the hand hole isnt filled with water and entirely frozen Daniel Ashton CenturyLink Then your maintenance costs go through the roof Its fascinating For years it was normal for residents to see a pedestal or a transformer Now they dont want to see anything Ben Goth TDS Telecom What were also running into is the reality that theres already a copper ped there for cable and a copper ped there for phone Now we want to put in a fiber ped and residents dont always want a third one Ashley Travers Verizon Its interesting and comforting to hear these stories We are all in the same situation where were trying to work through applications and the lack of response is hindering our progress In addition it forces us many times to go underground which costs us more We all thought that aerial fiber was the way for us and clearly its been a challenge Earlier in our conversation we spoke about working with our manufacturing partners to help us solve some field problems One particular example is that many municipalities dont want big handholes Thankfully our partners have been very adaptable to make products that are working for these municipalities Thats helping us evolve our fiber network build program in and out of franchised areas for Verizon Thats definitely a key to our success Ben Goth TDS Telecom I think we need more vendor input on these issues Ashley Travers Verizon We need bigger fiber We need smaller handholes And we cant bend it so were in need of someone to figure that out for us laughter Daniel Ashton Senior Engineer Electrical Protection ICEP CenturyLink Jeff Chapman EVP Operations NorthState Communications