Muni Fiber

Wed Mar 28 14:15:33 UTC 2012

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 7:56 AM, Fletcher Kittredge <fkittred at gwi.net> wrote:
> Wouldn't Federal and State laws preempt Municipal law in this area?

Hi Fletcher,

State laws yes. State legislatures tend to narrowly define what laws a
municipality is allowed to independently enact. And they tend to be
very open to the proposition that standards for utility construction
should be uniform across the state.

Federal, maybe. The FCC has overstepped its authority and been
overruled by the courts many times. And municipal laws can be
carefully enough constructed that preemption would unambiguously
exceed federal authority.

Even if preempted, a state or municipality can make it make it *very*
uncomfortable for a communications provider who doesn't want to play
ball. Consider, for example, DC's repaving requirements: if you dig up
the street, you're required to repave the whole street all the way
from the nearest intersections. Completely repave, not just
cold-patch. That's pretty expensive. Unless they waive the requirement
on a case by case basis. Where the basis has a habit of being whether
or not your digging is in line with a government policy objective.

This is one reason FIOS deployments lag in DC. Verizon doesn't want to
deploy conduit down every street lest they be compelled to open it to
competitors and the DC government won't waive the repaving
requirements for direct burial fiber.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004