Electro/Telecom Industry Trends
January 2003
Smart Buildings Policy Project: Still Fighting For Access
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If you’re renting an office in one of America’s 760,000 commercial office buildings, chances are, you can’t get high-speed telecommunications services from the competitive carrier of your choice. Only about 5 percent of building tenants can.
But since the summer of 2000, a group of competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) have been working with consumer groups, ISPs and other technology companies to support the Smart Buildings Policy Project (SBPP). Its goals: eliminate barriers to building access for telecommunications providers and open up broadband services to residential and business tenants throughout America.
Battle background
In Philadelphia, PA., a property owner made a competitive telecom provider pay $50,000 up-front and another $1,200 monthly for the honor of serving his multi-tenant building.
Although that amount is unusual, the process of charging for access is not. Coast-to-coast, landlords often hold competitive building access ransom, demanding part of the broadband booty before they open doors for tenants to access CLEC equipment. Even when “revenue sharing” isn’t an issue, property owners and managers have many other ways to thwart competitive access.
Only a handful of states — Texas, Connecticut, Ohio and Nebraska — have moved to adopt legislation or regulations that grant nondiscriminatory access to the telecommunications carriers that building tenants choose. But even in the few states with building access remedies, the SBPP must continue the access fight.
“We just filed a brief in Texas for a proceeding about the constitutionality of that state’s building access statute,” said Thomas Cohen, coordinator for the SBPP. “The building owner tried to deny access, claiming it was an improper taking of property. We won in court, but the building owner appealed. We continue to work on court cases on both the state and federal level.”
Along with filing briefs in court cases, the SBPP team lobbies in Washington, responds to requests for comment from organizations such as the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and delivers public education programs through websites.
In August 2002, the SBPP team presented proposed guidelines to the FCC. “The FCC is involved in major proceedings on other issues right now,” said Cohen. “We haven’t had an FCC response on our guidelines yet, but we’ll continue to pursue regulatory relief.”
FCC Wish list
On its 10-point wish list of guidelines for the FCC, the Smart Buildings Policy Project asked for the:
- Right to reasonable and nondiscriminatory fees… so that CLECs don’t get socked with access fees higher than those charged to other carriers.
- Right to a reasonable period for building entry negotiations … to eliminate what is now sometimes an 18-month delay before CLECs get building access to provide service.
The SBPP wants a 45-day limit on negotiation time.
- Right to a reasonable period to begin installation upon contract execution or plan
approval.
- Right to reasonable access to building risers, shafts, conduits, and rooftops.
- Right to 24/7 access for maintenance and repair.
- Right to use qualified contractors.
- Right to provide service to all tenants of a building.
- Right to avoid using a Central Distribution System (CDS). With a third party responsible for the maintenance and control of the fiber and equipment contained in the CDS, a CDS can severely restrict a CLEC’s ability to respond to customer outages.
- Right to line sharing. CLECs want permission to share capacity with other CLECs when such line sharing creates no additional physical impact to the building.
- Right to determine disclosure of equipment, services, and technical capabilities.
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