Incumbent telephone companies, utilities take on the world in FCC pole attachment debate

AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies lined up alongside utility providers in arguing against changes to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) pole attachment regulations, pitting the unlikely partners against cable and fiber providers alike. At the heart of the current FCC debate are proposed reforms which would force pole owners to share the cost of replacing poles with attachers, rather than leaving the latter to shoulder the entire cost burden. The FCC opened a review of its pole attachment rules in March, asking industry interests to weigh in on whether it should clarify the process for and regulate the cost of securing pole attachment rights. An initial round of comments filed before a June deadline saw AT&T and Verizon argue against changes while fiber builders represented by INCOMPAS and Charter Communications. Cable industry lobbyists NCTA – the Internet and Television Association and ACA Connects pressed for the implementation of new cost-sharing regulations on the grounds that pole owners benefit when attachers pay to have poles replaced. NCTA in particular claimed the need for reform is urgent, arguing comments submitted in the proceeding demonstrate “the current system for allocating the costs of replacing poles is unfair and interferes with the deployment of broadband to consumers, particularly in unserved and underserved areas.” However, AT&T and Verizon – this time joined by Lumen – pushed back, arguing in favor of the FCC preserving its existing regulation, stating that the attachers’ proposals would offload substantial portions of attachers’ deployment costs on other parties, including their direct competitors, merely serving to increase the profitability of the attachers’ government-subsidized services.