Telcos, Visayan Electric agree on standard poles

CEBU, Philippines — Several telecom and power distribution companies have agreed to put their acts together as they identified a pilot area for the proposed standardization of installation of wirings and poles as “a better solution” to the problem of “spaghetti wires” in Cebu City.

The companies include the Visayan Electric, Globe, PLDT, Converge, Dito, SkyCable, and Eastern Telecom, among others.

For years, the city government has been pushing for the removal of dangling wires along the city’s roads. While some companies have been receptive to the call, another problem has cropped up – they were not following certain standards in terms of height of poles used, for example.

Standardized wires and poles would mean neater work.

In a meeting with City Councilor Jerry Guardo, chairman of the Technical Infrastructure Committee, the concerned companies identified as their pilot project the alignment of existing poles at the back portion of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño, fronting the Cebu City Hall.

Guardo welcomed the unity shown by the companies, especially knowing that the issue on spaghetti wires has long plagued the city.

He observed that this is a recurring problem because after dead wires are removed, another line becomes dead or new ones would be installed in a week’s or month’s time.

“From the usual clearing lang because na-obserbahan nako na after a few months, there is another installation of wires. So ang bahitabo, magbalik-balik. There is no stopping to this problem,” said Guardo.

The City Council, according to the councilor, has not been remiss in crafting various measures to address the situation.

Among those ordinances: one that increased minimum height requirement in the installation of wires from 16 feet to 18 feet,  removal of redundant poles and dead wires, and installation of horizontal cross arms with color-coded wires among others.

The problem, though, is that these measures have not been followed. For instance, Guardo cited one company that used 20-foot pole, which is not compliant with the 16-18-foot requirement.

Guardo is, therefore, considering on incorporating all the approved measures in one codified measure.

“Para nako there is a better way to address this problem on spaghetti wiring caused by unregulated installation,” the councilor said, adding that this will be made concurrent to the underground cabling project in the city, which cannot be done right away.

Guardo, thus, called a meeting with the telcos and the Visayan Electric to have a unified solution to the problem.

“I called for a meeting to formulate standard solution…This is also in line with my proposed ordinance standardizing the installation of poles and regulating of overhead wires and providing penalties,” he said.

Along with this, the one-pole policy proposed earlier will also be incorporated into the codified measure, especially since some of the telcos are already attached to poles of the Visayan Electric.

“In a way ma-apply ra gihapon ang single-pole policy kay tangtangon naman ang mga redundant poles,” added Guardo.

Single poles are expected to address the problem of low-lying wires in the interior parts of the barangays.

Guardo said the companies welcomed the unified initiative arrived at during the meeting.

“Nalipay man sila… It’s just that the LGU should initiate for them to abide,” he said. – JMD (FREEMAN)