UTILITY companies in Mandaue City fear that more disastrous incidents due to “overloading” can happen as a result of using a single pole for wiring and cable installations within the city.
This as the Mandaue City Government plans to implement a Single Pole Policy Ordinance.
During a public consultation and workshop on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, Airam Detablan, Operations and Maintenance Lead for Visayas of Dito Telecommunity, said while this would save them the cost of installing more poles for connection, having an existing dominant pole may cause the post to collapse, leading to possible road accidents and overloading of connections that may cause fire and power outages.
Detablan said the durability of an existing pole might not be as strong as a new one and bigger utility companies might not be able to accommodate smaller companies.
“For example, for Dito, we have more or less 216 cables installed within the city. So, if we put all that in a single pole, we become the dominant connection. We might not be able to cater to other telcos and utility companies,” said Detablan.
Telco companies also raised concerns about the inconvenience of moving cables from one place to another. A small cable can weigh at least one kilogram and its transfer process is tedious, they said.
The proposed ordinance aims to eliminate all clustered poles on sidewalks, roadsides, and any other public places, keeping only the post owned by the dominant utility company with the most connecting poles and customers served, such as telecommunications companies.
It means all cable attachments of clustered poles will be transferred to the dominant post, and the latter must upgrade their retained pole to carry the other newly connected cables.
Meanwhile, for areas without a post owned by the dominant utility company, the proposed ordinance allows the retention of the clustered pole with the most connections and customers to receive all cable connections.
But it may be ejected when a dominant utility company comes and erects its post. The dominant utility company will then send a seven-day eviction notice, according to the ordinance.
All poles must be installed at least 20 feet above the ground, four feet taller than the standard pole height of 16 feet.
Exceptions from the One Pole Policy include areas where an existing pole cannot accommodate additional electrical equipment installation such as transformer and line devices, and road crossings or intersections with no existing poles.
Also exempted are existing poles and their attachments that are difficult to transfer and if the pole is a sub-transmission pole that carries high voltage power.
Noncompliant utility companies will pay a fine of P300,000 per pole per day and will receive a warning letter from the City’s Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC), which will be assigned to monitor the companies’ adherence to the policy.
Dangling wires
In a separate interview, Mayor Jonas Cortes said the city’s problem of dangling wires across main roads worsened after Typhoon Odette (Rai) hit Metro Cebu on Dec. 16, 2021.
Cortes said they began clearing operations with the telcos and other stakeholders after the super typhoon but this has remained a problem.
During the discussion, telcos pointed out that the complicated and delicate process of separating dead and active wires hindered them from expediting their clearing operations.
The stakeholders suggested installing cable hangers to ensure that all cables are well-bonded and in place.
Others also suggested assigning designated colors for each utility company to avoid confusion when it comes to cable maintenance and future replacements.
Also discussed during the dialogue was proper spacing in the connection of poles so that CCTV cameras installed within the city are not affected.
Hyll Retuya, Legal Division head of Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue, said they will study all concerns and suggestions and will include revisions before endorsing it to the City Council for passage and implementation.