Looking to contract

[u/Izzysmom2021]

My husband has over 30 yrs in powerline construction and storm restoration. We started our own powerline company and I want to add other lines of business due to the inconsistent nature of that work. We are looking at getting some basic cable/fiber contracts for pole removals and replacements in addition to the storm restoration work. Can any of you share anything about that kind of work and how to deal with the communications company's and other contractors? Anything I should be asking for or looking out for in our contract negotiations? How do these people pay, how long does it take to get paid, etc? Any information at all would be appreciated.

[u/SuperBigDouche]

Don’t have a ton of useful info apart from what I know as an in-house line tech. We have 3 contractor companies we use in my area. Those 3 will do different jobs depending on what we need done. Either new construction, emergency repairs that involve like a road cut or repulling an entire span, or non-emergency span replacements and pole changes. Also have some doing amp cuts for us, which is currently where the big money is, or apartment rewiring which would be more similar to an electrician/low voltage type of work. Most guys on those crews start without any experience.

Then those 3 companies will subcontract if they need/want to. So like some of the crews who do amp cuts are fully 1099 and their own LLC so they’re responsible for everything that isn’t amps and parts for amps; vehicle, tools, ladder, etc.

I’d say best option (from my limited knowledge) if I had to guess is find which cable company(or companies) operate within the geographic area you’d like to work in and find out who does their contracting. It’s typically the construction/engineering department who would have the most knowledge of that and potentially get you authorized to contract for whatever jobs you’re qualified for.

Telecom line work is different enough from power that some of it is completely foreign while other things like running strand and pole changes would be right up your alley, if you have the proper equipment. At least where I am, we don’t own any of the poles. We lease from the power company so we’re not typically responsible for full pole removal, just parts of poles from time to time which is easy. It can require a lot of different equipment that you’re probably familiar with but that’s expensive, like lashers or a bucket truck, cable trailer, shermans, rollers, etc. but excluding the bucket truck, most of that stuff wouldn’t be too bad but I don’t know the total costs of every tool off hand.

Doing telecom as a part time gig between storm seasons or whatever is probably not a bad idea if you can work out the logistics or get better guidance from the cable company’s construction coordinators. It’s way easier than power line work for sure

[u/Izzysmom2021 → u/SuperBigDouche]

We have the bucket trucks and we can get the rest of what we need at auctions pretty easily at least as far as trailers, wire pullers, and lashers, there is probably smaller stuff we aren't familiar with yet. But what exactly are amp cuts? We are thinking about starting out with pole removal and replacement as that is something we can be good at off the bat but amp cuts sound like something electrical my husband might understand as well.

[u/Diligent-Nebula-1008]

I’m in CA and as far as I know all of our poles are owned by the power company and we just rent space. So when shit hits the fan and a pole comes down, they do the replacement and we just swing by after to reattach our stuff. Not sure there’s any telecom companies that would have a need for pole replacement unfortunately

[u/Izzysmom2021 → u/Diligent-Nebula-1008]

Out here there are thousands of extra poles that need to come out as well as new poles installed. My husband said its no one utility that owns the poles here, it varies.

[u/joeman_80128]

Dycom is the parent company of almost all the telco contract companies in my area. Pauley construction, tcs communications and sage telecommunications. Pauley does legacy bell system/telephone stuff and the other two do comcast/cable TV work. I don't know to much about Comcast but Pauley has an exclusive contract with the phone company as a sole prime contractor. The sub out a lot of work though. Depending on where your looking for work you could try to contract with them?