Risks Associated with Outside Plant Operations. The parties acknowledge that SWBT’s outside plant facilities include thousands of miles of pole lines, conduits, and rights-of- way located on public and private property throughout SWBT’s service area, that SWBT cannot control or continuously monitor activities that occur at these sites, and that the risks associated with outside plant operations and facilities are not similar to the risks associated with operations occurring inside SWBT’s central offices and other secure SWBT buildings and structures. The parties further acknowledge that the presence of multiple firms on or in poles, ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way owned or controlled by SWBT requires that liability risks be fairly allocated between the parties and that it is the parties’ intent to allocate such risks in a just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory manner which addresses known risks associated with the outside plant environment and activities and conditions at outside plant locations.
