Cable Ops Seek Pole Attachment Decision

The American Cable Association and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association are urging the Federal Communications Commission to act on a petition from NCTA and Comptel to insure the FCC effort to lower pole-attachment rates really does that in a Title II Internet service provider world. Telecommunications historically paid pay more for those attachments than cable operators. But in the interests of promoting broadband, the FCC in 2011 tried to harmonize the rates by lowering the telecommunication rate to the cable rate. That turned out not to have worked in practice "in all circumstances," said cable operators, and gave pole owners a cost-allocation alternative that allowed them to still charge a higher rate. They asked the FCC to fix that, but it has yet to act on the petition. Unless it is stayed by the court, reclassification goes into effect June 12 and cable broadband becomes a telecommunication service subject to those potentially higher rates. ACA and NCTA had urged the FCC to fix the problem before it took action on new net neutrality rules.