FCC Seeks Public Input on Utility Pole Replacement Cost-Sharing

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The FCC wants to minimize disputes over utility pole attachments, especially before the $65 billion in broadband infrastructure funding gets used from the administration’s Infrastructure Law. That’s why Commissioners voted 4-0 at Wednesday’s meeting to seek public input on establishing clear standards for how utilities and attachers must share in pole replacement costs. 

In the Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC asks questions such as who should pay the cost of pole replacement when that isn’t determined by a new attachment request and whether utilities benefit from various types of pole replacements. It asks if the Commission should require utilities to pay a proportional share of all replacement costs. 

The Commission seeks public input on what measures it could adopt to avoid disputes, or expedite the resolution of pole replacement fights. The agency also wants to know whether requiring utilities to pay a portion of the costs of a pole replacement would positively or negatively affect negotiations of pole attachment agreements and broadband deployment.

During the vote, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said, “If the government is spending broadband dollars without streamlining infrastructure rules, it is stepping on the gas and the brakes at the same time. Specific to pole attachments, there is more we can do to avoid that outcome.” For example, Carr says he continues to hear concerns about unnecessary delays when broadband builders seek to attach to poles owned by municipal or cooperative utilities.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said one thing that stands out for him in this area is how often utilities and contractors end up in protracted disputes that hold up investment and broadband deployment. “This hurts not just one company or the other, it also hurts entire communities by keeping them stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide while these disputes are working their way through [completion.] I encourage community groups to focus on how we can create more legal certainty and provide resolution for pole attachers.”

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel emphasized that access to utility poles can’t become an impediment to broadband deployment as the nation prepares to spend billions of dollars. “It’s essential that we have policies in place to make sure these dollars are used in a cost-effective way and that pole attachment policies facilitate rather than impede broadband buildout.”

Rosenworcel explained the nitty-gritty of broadband deployment, saying, “Networks need to be designed, rights-of-way need to be negotiated, and fiber-optic cable needs to be attached to utility poles, which are often owned and controlled by the local electric company or telephone company. Some of the companies in the process of building broadband to unserved and underserved areas have told us the cost of these pole attachments can make up as much as one third of the cost of rural deployment. That’s a lot. But that figure does not even include the time required to negotiate and strike agreements for access to each and every pole.”

The 2nd Further NPRM is the latest in a series of steps the Commission has taken over the past decade to update its pole attachment rules.

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief

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