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San Leandro Commercial Broadband Strategy 6. Comprehensive Open Trench Policy 6.1. Background Most of the cost of building utilities, including fiber optic lines, in urban areas is related to cutting open streets, placing conduit and repairing the damage done. If projects can be combined, then costs can be shared, damage and disruption minimized and timely deployment can be encouraged. So- called open trench policies are designed to maximize this opportunity by creating a consistent and reliable procedure for sharing advance information about street cuts and facilitating cooperation between public works projects, utility companies of all kinds and both incumbent and competitive telecommunication service providers. The intended result is to install telecommunications conduit at a greatly reduced cost and minimize future digs by providing an opportunity to inexpensively install facilities on a cooperative basis. Most of the expense involved in installing underground fiber optic lines is for digging into roadways and repairing the subsequent damage, so opportunities such as these could save money and speed construction. For example, if a telecommunications company was notified that a water district was digging a trench on a particular route and given an opportunity to place conduit in that trench on a predetermined cost - sharing basis, it might accelerate plans to extend high speed Internet service to that area. Other open trench policies go further, mandating the installation of empty conduit on a prospective basis any time a street is opened. Ownership of the new, empty conduit is typically in the hands of the public agency that controls the right of way. As with broadband facility reviews, adding open trench notification procedures to City approval processes has the potential to increase project compliance costs. However, a slight increase in cost for an initial applicant would be offset by any subsequent cost sharing arrangements, and by the significant decrease in cost for potential partners. Taken as a whole, costs should decrease for everyone because over time any given company would realize more cost sharing opportunities than be subject to notification requirements. 6.2. Current status San Leandro does not have a formal open trench policy, as recommended by Governor Schwarzenegger's executive order and the California Broadband Task Force's 2008 16 July 2012 TellusVenture Associates Page 28