The New Joint Use Portal

As we've mentioned before, collaborative joint use can be quite difficult.

Utility companies bear incredible responsibility. Keeping their customers' lights on and their workers safe (while also growing their business) is often an uphill battle.

But that's not all. Pole owners are also mandated to share their distribution system (poles) with communications companies and are required to respond to attachment applications in a timely manner.

If that sounds like a lot of responsibility, it's because it is.

As our country shifts towards audacious broadband deployment goals and as we approach the future of 5G, the FCC has shortened deadlines to assist attachers and has proposed to shorten these deadlines even further.

While aggressive timelines will be necessary to prevent projects from stalling, they provide further stress to joint use departments around the country--teams that are already under enormous pressure to deliver.

That's where we come in.

At Katapult Engineering, we believe that safety should not be sacrificed for speed, and that power and communications are both crucial for the end consumer to be successful and enjoy their lives. So we built a tool for the teams that make this a reality. Our new joint use portal makes creating, tracking, and processing attachment applications paperless and easier than ever.

Applicants can view all their applications in one place and can sort them by app number, date submitted, and status. They can also view each date that the application passed through a step in the process. Guying plans and make ready documents can be easily uploaded to any application, too.

As the pole owners, you can add your pole database and power specs for simplified app creation and pole loading. You can also sort all applications submitted by date, applicant, and much more.

This portal emphasizes transparency, allowing joint use departments, third-party attachers, and make ready construction companies (and other sub-contractors) to all work from the same set of data, as well as monitor and track an application's progress throughout each step. We want to make your job easier! Call us at (717) 432-0716 or email me at aschmehl@katapultengineering.com to set up a portal demo.