AT&T Files FCC Complaint Over Duke Energy Pole Attachment Rates

AT&T last week filed a complaint with the FCC accusing Duke Energy Carolinas of charging excessive utility pole attachment fees since 2023. AT&T claims Duke’s 2025 pole rental rates are several times higher than the FCC’s allowable telecom rate, about $11.70 per pole, despite federal rules requiring rates to be “just and reasonable.” In the suit, AT&T claims Duke’s “unjust and unreasonable” rates far exceed the old telecom rate of about $10.90 per pole.

The carrier is asking the FCC to lower Duke’s rates, order refunds for alleged overcharges during the past three years, and reaffirm pole attachment pricing rules intended to promote broadband deployment and fair competition.

The suit states: “Duke has thus continued to charge AT&T rates that, on average, are over the “maximum rate” Duke may charge. This alone is sufficient to find Duke’s rates excessively and unreasonably high. Yet Duke’s rates are unjust and unreasonable for additional  reasons as well. The rates that AT&T and Duke pay under the JUA (a 1978 agreement) are disproportionate to the amount of space each uses on the poles,” such that “AT&T pays far more than Duke on a per-foot basis.” Also, “the rents Duke collects from third party attachers on the same poles has no impact on the rate AT&T pays under the JUA,” which means the “third party rents effectively reduce the percentage of the pole cost that Duke pays, but do not reduce the percentage that AT&T pays.”