Texas Supreme Court Dismisses Cities’ Telecom Fee Challenge

The Texas Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit by nearly 60 cities challenging state laws that cap fees charged to telecommunications providers, ruling the cities sued the wrong defendant, according to KERA-TV. The cities, including Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio, argued that 2017 and 2019 laws unlawfully discounted access to public rights-of-way for telecom companies. They claimed the fee caps amounted to an unconstitutional gift of public property.

The court did not rule on the laws’ constitutionality. Instead, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote that the cities should have sued a state agency responsible for enforcing the laws or the telecom companies themselves.  

Network nodes are typically installed on street lights or utility poles 30-40 feet above the ground, enabling 5G wireless services, KERA-TV reported. State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1004 in 2017 allowing wireless network providers to install nodes in public rights-of-ways. The laws allowed cities to charge the providers an annual right-of-way rate of $250 per node.

“The judgment sought in this lawsuit would therefore not redress the cities’ injury or resolve the real-world dispute animating this litigation. It would merely declare the position of the judiciary on the legal question the cities raise,” Blacklock wrote. “But that is not what courts are for.”

The ruling ends nearly nine years of litigation, though the court said the case could be refiled against the proper defendants.