Joint use applications, IKE survey data processing, multi-owner pole coordination, and utility relocation engineering — managed end-to-end so your fiber project stays on schedule.
In telecom outside plant (OSP), utility coordination involves managing all interactions with pole owners, utilities, and government agencies whose infrastructure intersects your fiber project. This includes joint use applications, pole owner notification, conflicting attachment resolution, IKE survey data processing, and utility relocation requests. It is not a single task — it is an ongoing project management discipline that runs from pre-design through construction closeout.
On large projects spanning hundreds or thousands of poles across multiple jurisdictions, utility coordination is often the longest-lead-time activity on the project schedule. A construction crew that's ready to hang cable cannot move until pole owners have approved attachments and make-ready work is complete. Utility coordination delays are one of the most common reasons fiber projects miss their in-service dates — and almost all of those delays are preventable with disciplined, proactive coordination management that starts before field surveys are even complete.
Unlike design or permitting work, utility coordination involves responding to the timelines and processes of third parties — electric utilities, telephone companies, municipalities, state DOTs — who have their own priorities and no contractual obligation to move quickly. The skill is in managing that external environment: knowing when to follow up, how to escalate, when to invoke FCC pole attachment rights, and how to sequence parallel applications across multiple owners to minimize critical path impact.
Draftech provides end-to-end utility coordination for fiber and telecom OSP projects across all 48 continental U.S. states. Our coordination team manages the full application lifecycle from initial submission through approval, make-ready, attachment, and inspection — tracking status across multiple pole owners and jurisdictions simultaneously.
NJUNS submissions, direct pole owner notification, and proprietary utility portal management. Full application tracking with status reports to keep your project team informed.
Active management of application queues, follow-up on stalled applications, and escalation protocols when pole owners exceed statutory response timelines.
Processing and QC of IKE (Katapult) field data to identify NESC violations, unauthorized attachments, pole capacity issues, and conflicts requiring resolution before fiber attachment.
Coordination with existing cable and telecom attachers for rearrangements required to create clearance for new fiber — including notification, scheduling, and completion verification.
Power lowering requests, neutral rearrangements, and communication space clearance work with electric utilities — the most complex and time-consuming make-ready category on most projects.
Engineering packages for gas, water, and electric utility relocations required by fiber route design — coordinated with the applicable utility and ROW authority.
Permit applications for shared use of existing conduit systems, including documentation packages for municipal, state, and private conduit owners.
Full make-ready engineering packages — the technical design work that defines exactly what rearrangements are required before fiber can attach to a pole.
Every fiber attacher needs to understand the joint use agreement (JUA) framework before a single application is filed. The pole owner — typically an electric utility or incumbent telephone company — establishes the rules, rates, and clearance requirements under the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) and their own tariffs. Fiber attachers must apply for permission, obtain approval, pay annual attachment fees, and comply with all technical specifications, including minimum clearances from electric conductors and existing communication attachments.
The application lifecycle follows a defined sequence:
Joint use applications are filed through NJUNS (National Joint Use Notification System), direct written notification to the pole owner, or the utility's proprietary web portal. Application packages include attacher information, pole lists, attachment specifications, and proposed attachment heights.
The pole owner reviews the application for completeness and conducts a technical review — checking proposed attachment heights against their NESC clearance requirements, evaluating pole structural capacity, and identifying any conflicts with existing attachments or planned work.
Poles where attachment is feasible without modification are approved as-is. Poles requiring rearrangement or structural work receive a make-ready determination — a list of required modifications before the new attachment can proceed. Draftech's pole loading analysis team supports this phase for structurally complex poles.
Make-ready work is coordinated with the pole owner, existing attachers, and construction crews. Electric utility work — power lowering, neutral rearrangements — must be performed by qualified utility personnel and is typically the longest-lead-time make-ready item on any project.
Once make-ready is complete, the new fiber attachment proceeds. Post-attachment inspection by the pole owner confirms compliance with approved heights and NESC clearances. Draftech coordinates inspection scheduling and resolves any compliance findings before final approval is issued.
FCC pole attachment rights matter. Under the FCC's pole attachment rules, utilities must respond to complete applications within defined timelines and may not unreasonably delay or deny access. Draftech monitors compliance with these timelines and advises clients when utility conduct warrants escalation — including invoicing disputes, tariff violations, and unreasonable make-ready cost allocations.
IKE (formerly Katapult) is the dominant field data collection platform for joint use surveys across the United States. Field crews use the IKE mobile application to photograph each pole, record existing attachment heights and identities, measure clearances, note structural conditions, and flag visible NESC violations — all automatically geo-referenced and synced to a cloud-hosted database accessible to the project design team.
Draftech processes IKE survey data as part of both our utility coordination and make-ready engineering workflows. The analysis identifies:
Accurate IKE data at the start of a project saves weeks of field rework later. A project that discovers clearance violations mid-construction — after joint use applications have been approved — faces expensive schedule disruptions. The time to find these problems is during field survey, not during construction.
We also support fiber permitting workflows that run in parallel with utility coordination — permit drawings, municipality applications, and railroad crossing permits that have their own independent timelines and need to be tracked alongside pole attachment applications.
Large fiber projects cross poles owned by multiple different entities — electric utilities, telephone companies, municipalities, rural electric cooperatives, state DOTs, and private property owners — each with its own application process, fee schedule, attachment standards, and response timeline. A route that looks straightforward on a map can involve five or six different pole owners, each requiring separate applications filed through different systems.
Managing this complexity is a core competency at Draftech. We maintain familiarity with the joint use programs, portal systems, and contact networks for utilities across all 48 continental states, which means applications get filed through the right channels from day one — not after discovering that a particular cooperative only accepts paper applications or that a specific municipality routes joint use through the public works department rather than the utility.
On multi-owner routes, we build a coordination matrix that tracks each pole owner as a separate workflow — application submission date, expected response date, actual response date, make-ready status, and projected attachment-ready date. This gives project managers a real view of which owners are on the critical path and where schedule risk is concentrated.
The parallel application management capability also matters when projects need to phase construction. Draftech can sequence applications strategically — filing the most complex owners first, running electric utility coordination in parallel with telecom owner coordination — to minimize the gap between the first construction-ready segment and the last.
Coordination across all 48 continental U.S. states: Draftech has active utility coordination experience across the continental United States — including cooperative territories, municipal utility districts, and state DOT ROW programs that have their own specialized application requirements. We don't learn a new utility's process on your project schedule.
A joint use application is a formal request from a fiber or telecom attacher to a pole owner seeking permission to attach equipment to their poles. Applications are filed through NJUNS, proprietary utility portals, or direct written notification depending on the pole owner. The pole owner reviews the application, performs a technical review against their clearance requirements, and issues an approval, conditional approval with make-ready requirements, or denial. Draftech manages the full application cycle — preparation, filing, tracking, follow-up, and escalation — across all pole owner types and submission systems.
Utility coordination is frequently the critical path item on a fiber project. Pole owners can take 30–90 days or more to respond to applications, and each make-ready requirement adds additional cycles. On multi-owner routes, coordination workloads run in parallel but rarely finish simultaneously — which means the last pole owner to approve becomes the construction start gate. Projects that begin coordination late consistently push construction start dates by months. Draftech builds coordination milestones into project schedules from day one and actively manages queues to prevent delays from compounding.
IKE (now Katapult) is the leading field data collection platform for joint use and OSP pole surveys. Field crews photograph poles and record attachment heights, identities, and clearances using the IKE mobile app — all geo-referenced and uploaded to a cloud database. Draftech processes IKE data to identify NESC violations, unauthorized attachments, capacity issues, and conflicts that need resolution before fiber can attach. Catching these conditions early — at survey, not at construction — prevents expensive mid-project redesigns and schedule disruptions.
A denial is not necessarily the end of the road. Common denial reasons include insufficient clearance to existing attachments, structural capacity concerns, incomplete application information, or outstanding make-ready from prior attachers. Draftech reviews each denial, identifies the specific issue, and either resubmits a corrected application, coordinates the required make-ready, or advises clients on their rights under the FCC's pole attachment rules if the denial appears unreasonable. Some poles genuinely require structural replacement — we flag those early and incorporate the cost and schedule impact into project planning.
Yes. Small cell pole attachments require the same joint use application process as fiber — pole owner notification, clearance review, make-ready assessment — plus additional considerations around power supply, equipment mounting hardware, and municipal permitting for the wireless node. Draftech coordinates small cell pole attachment applications for wireless carriers, neutral hosts, and municipalities on both utility poles and street light structures. Small cell programs typically run alongside our traditional fiber utility coordination work under the same project management framework.
ARE YOU A UTILITY COORDINATION SPECIALIST?
This page describes the service we deliver to clients. If you provide joint use application management or pole owner coordination and are looking for a consistent subcontract pipeline, we have ongoing capacity needs in this discipline.
Whether you're preparing for a large multi-owner route or need help clearing a stalled application with a single utility, our coordination team is ready to help. We work with ISPs, municipalities, co-ops, and BEAD subgrantees across all 48 continental states.
Contact Our Engineering TeamOr email us directly at info@draftech.com — we reply within one business day.