Calling poles public, and accessible to "everyone" is only true on a technical level. Practically speaking, companies have a financial interest in preventing ot

Calling poles public, and accessible to "everyone" is only true on a technical level. Practically speaking, companies have a financial interest in preventing others from using the public poles and they succeed in this. Often, occupants of a pole can delay others from using the public pole for years at a time. We see this with competing internet providers tying up pole access for new-comers in court. On top of that, existing users of the pole can layout their cables such that new-comers would have to invest in re-positioning, which then also happens on the existing users schedule. This can also tie up the pole for years at a time. Embedding cabling along the roadside has similar issues, and depending on the timing, new-comers may have to incur the cost of repaving the entire section of road they use, not just the routing area.