Attacher (also Attaching Company)
An attacher or an attaching company is a service provider that rents space on a utility pole to facilitate services to a population.
What Is an Attacher or an Attaching Company?
Attachers, such as telecommunications companies, cable companies, broadband internet providers, and wireless providers, pay a pole attachment fee to a utility pole owner to rent space for their equipment. The partnership arrangement between attachers and asset owners creates joint use operations.
Attachers require utility pole space to disperse services to their customers, yet few companies own poles themselves. As such, they must work collaboratively with asset owners, establishing joint use agreements to occupy specific areas of utility pole field assets.
Attaching companies must abide by specific regulations, as they’re often sharing space on a utility pole with other service providers, municipal attachments, etc. The types, spacing, and size of equipment must be in line with both regulatory compliance and the asset owner’s requirements.
Alden ONE is a joint use asset management system that streamlines and facilitates both joint use operations and compliance by creating an accurate, centralized record of all communications and activities between attachers and asset owners.
FAQ
Attaching companies commonly include broadband internet providers, wireless providers, fiber optic providers, and cable companies (CATV). These companies attach their equipment to disperse services to their own customers.
Joint use poles are utility poles in which one company owns the asset and rents a particular space to other service providers. Attachers use an attachment agreement to rent space on joint use poles.
Attachers commonly attach various cables and equipment needed to facilitate service provision, including electrical lines, insulators, fiber optic cables, and electrical boxes.
