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Digging In

Telecoms want rule changes to prevent costly mishaps

BY VALERIE MILLER

After severed lines left some 60,000 Embarq customers without service last month, telecommunications companies are looking for ways to prevent future outages. But as providers weigh prevention, a bigger legislative battle may be brewing over who should pay for the safeguards.

On Dec. 10, phone service to thousands of Embarq customers was disrupted after a contractor installing a sewer line near downtown Las Vegas cut through the phone carrier's lines. State offices, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, experienced disruptions, as did some Verizon users, Embarq operations director Scott Mitchell said. Phone service for most of those Embarq customers was restored before the next day, but some competing companies are questioning providers' practice of putting lines in the same right-of-way trenches.

One smaller carrier, Las Vegas-based 1Velocity, offers microwave radio technology as an alternative to underground telecommunications lines. The technology, said 1Velocity's founder Mike Ballard, protects customers from mishaps resulting from ruptured lines.

JEFERSON APPLEGATE | BUSINESS PRESS
Dave Pecoraro, a line locator for Cox, points to a communication line buried where contractors are working on a road project.

JEFERSON APPLEGATE | BUSINESS PRESS
1Velocity CEO Mike Ballard, on the ladder, and Executive Vice President Frank Kostelac stand near their microwave dishes.

"We use a wireless spectrum, and we also have outages, but (fewer outages) than those who are using 'Call before You Dig,'" Ballard said.

The long-running "Call Before You Dig" campaign, now often referred to as "One Call," promotes the practice of calling in your planned excavation location to a clearinghouse that provides a communications link between people excavating and public utilities with underground lines. The program is supposed to help prevent rupturing underground lines in shared right-of-way areas.

Embarq, Cox Communications, NV Energy and Southwest Gas Corp. are among companies promoting the "Call Before You Dig," programs. The companies commonly have their copper and fiber cables in the same underground trenches, as do smaller telecom companies that often use lines owned by Embarq or Cox.

That's where the problem lies in providing adequate backup, or redundancy, Ballard said.

"If you say, 'I never want to go down,' and (the company) chooses two carriers for the primary and the backup, but both carriers are in the same trench, what are the odds that both will go down if the trench is dug up?" he asked.

Although fiber optic lines can be rerouted during outages more quickly than copper lines can, copper lines are still in heavy use locally and nationally, he added.

"Eighty-four percent of new commercial buildings in the country don't have fiber," Ballard said. "They just have copper."

Although line ruptures from digging usually don't cause as much damage as the Dec. 10 incident, they remain a major cause of outages for utilities. Most companies governed by the Public Utilities Commission are required to locate their lines, which is not cheap, Cox and Embarq officials said.

Cox devotes an entire division to locating underground lines, said Steve Schorr, Cox's vice president of public and government affairs. Cox puts its annual cost for the division at $452,000. Embarq spends about $400,000 a year to locate its lines. Nevada Energy and Southwest Gas also pay for their own line location.

In line mapping, the utility company that owns the lines, visits the spot where the lines are buried. Then the utility uses an electronic transmitter to trace the lines' paths. Once the lines are traced, paint is used to let the excavator know their location, said Dave Pecoraro, a line locator for Cox.

"Sometimes they think, '(The lines) will be deeper here,' and keep digging with their backhoe instead of their shovels," he said.

Concrete boxes encase the lines to protect them. The boxes cannot withstand such the force from powerful earth-moving equipment, but they can protect cables against shovels.

Although utilities are required to locate their own lines and pay the cost incurred, sanitation and sewage providers are not. Schorr considers that unfair and said the PUC tried recently to make the segment abide by the same requirements as the other utilities. However, the commission was thwarted in its efforts by state lawmakers who expressed concern about the cost to local governments, Schorr added.

"Everybody will do it, but sewer will not ... we testified before the PUC that sewer should do it," Schorr said of the utilities locating their own lines.

PUC spokesman Sean Sever confirmed that the commission had tabled the measure at the request of some state legislators.

"The legislative committee talked to us. The committee wanted to adopt AB 32 on sewer-line location," he said.

Assembly Bill 32 specifically exempts governments and government agencies from having to mark or identify the approximate location of sewer service pipes or conduits.

The bill was introduced on Dec. 5 by the Committee on Health and Human Services on behalf of Esmeralda County. Schorr said he intends to testify on the issue again. This time it will be in front of the 2009 Nevada Legislature.

Mitchell agreed with Schorr that the bill would be unfair to those already paying to locate their own lines.

"We are all together on this," he said of his company, Cox, NV Energy and Southwest Gas.

Mitchell said Embarq expects restitution for the recent outage that sanitation contractor Wells Cargo caused.

Contact reporter Valerie Miller at vmiller@lvbusinesspress.com or 702-387-5286.

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