Fiber optic cables, telephone lines, and broadband conduit have been running through public streets and utility corridors for decades, often under legal arrangements that were written long before the modern telecommunications industry existed. For the cities and counties responsible for those streets, fiber encroachment on public roads and the right of way issues it creates are among the most persistent and underappreciated management challenges in local government. Coastal Tower Law’s wireline encroachments practice helps local governments understand and exercise the authority they already have, and use it before problems compound.
The Legal Framework Is More Useful Than It Looks
A few primary bodies of law govern how municipalities can regulate wireline infrastructure in the public right-of-way in California.
At the federal level, 47 U.S.C. Section 253 prohibits local governments from imposing requirements that effectively prohibit the provision of telecommunications services. That limitation gets most of the attention, but Section 253 also expressly preserves local authority to manage the public right-of-way on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis. Municipalities are not powerless, and the statute does not strip them of meaningful oversight.
In California, Public Utilities Code Sections 7901 and 7901.1 give qualifying telephone corporations the right to use public rights-of-way for their infrastructure while simultaneously preserving municipal authority to exercise reasonable control over the time, place, and manner of that use. Together, these frameworks give local governments more tools than they often realize, provided those tools are actually built into encroachment permits and license agreements before providers break ground.
Additionally, California’s Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006, known as “DIVCA”, adds another layer relevant to cable operators and video service providers. DIVCA replaced the prior local franchise system with a statewide franchise issued by the California Public Utilities Commission, which means municipalities no longer negotiate individual franchise agreements with cable companies the way they once did. What DIVCA did not eliminate is local authority over the physical right-of-way. Cities and counties retain the right to require encroachment permits, impose construction and restoration standards, and enforce the physical use conditions that govern how a cable operator’s infrastructure occupies public streets and utility corridors. The shift to a state franchise can create the mistaken impression that local governments have lost their footing with cable providers altogether, but DIVCA’s scope is limited to the franchise relationship, and right-of-way management authority remains squarely at the local level.
Underground Installations and Pavement Degradation
Direct-buried cable, conduit systems, junction boxes, and subsurface vaults all disturb compacted soil and road base in ways that create ongoing pavement problems long after construction ends. Trench lines that were improperly restored at the time of installation can sink, crack, and fail over years as the disturbed material continues to settle. The resulting road hazards and pavement maintenance costs often fall on the municipality unless the original encroachment permit clearly addressed restoration standards and gave the agency a right of recourse.
Microtrenching deserves particular attention. This deployment method, in which a provider cuts a narrow, shallow slot in existing pavement to install fiber, poses elevated long-term risks to pavement integrity. In some circumstances, local governments may be required to accommodate it, like when it meets the specific parameters set forth in California Government Code Section 65964.5. That makes it even more important that the permitting conditions address trench depth, seal specifications, and the municipality’s right to require full pavement restoration if the installation fails prematurely.
Aerial Plant and the Utility Pole Problem
Wireline infrastructure strung above ground creates a different and often more visible set of management challenges. Wood poles that have exceeded their service life, structural overloading from successive attachments by multiple providers, and the proliferation of temporary “buddy” poles installed to prop up poles that should have been replaced but never were, leave neighborhoods with infrastructure that is redundant, cluttered, and in some cases genuinely hazardous.
For public works departments reviewing encroachment permits for new attachments, the practical need is clear: legal authority to evaluate whether an existing pole can safely support additional loading, to condition or deny permits where structural capacity is inadequate, and to require remediation of unsafe conditions before new attachments are approved. That authority exists, but it has to be built into the permit framework. Agencies that rely on form encroachment permits developed before fiber deployment accelerated often find those documents do not give them the tools they need.
Encroachment Permit Policies That Work Over Time
Effective right-of-way management for wireline infrastructure depends on having encroachment permit policies that address both current construction and long-term accountability. That means application requirements tied to engineering review, construction specifications with enforceable restoration standards, provisions requiring providers to repair or reimburse the municipality for pavement failures attributable to their installations, and as-built documentation requirements that keep infrastructure mapping current.
These elements are far more difficult to negotiate after a provider has already deployed than they are to build into a standard permit framework before applications arrive.
If your agency is looking at an uptick in fiber deployment applications or managing infrastructure that was installed under older permit conditions that no longer serve you well, contact Coastal Tower Law to discuss how your municipality can get ahead of these issues before they become a maintenance and liability problem.