Electric Utilities Lobby FCC on Pole Attachments; Comcast Seeks 'Overlashing' Language

Electric utilities pushed "creative and common sense" FCC pole-attachment solutions for communications providers that recognize the safety and reliability of their power infrastructure. "Utility poles have already become crowded, and will become more so with hundreds of thousands of new 5G wireless and other attachments expected to be installed," said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-84 by members of the Coalition of Concerned Utilities on meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai and an aide to Commission Mignon Clyburn. They repeated support for "One-Touch, Make-Ready" changes, "identified attachment management tools" to help address process delays and "proposed economic and other incentives to encourage utility pole owners to problem solve" issues. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said broadband service providers were trying to blame pole-attachment rates for rural broadband deployment difficulties even though deployment is largely driven by population density. Electric co-ops "offered major service providers the federal cable rate or even free pole attachments in exchange for coverage of their entire cooperative service territory," said a NRECA filing on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "The offers were not accepted, indicating that pole attachment rates are not the impediment to deployment some major providers claim." Noting a draft order on the Nov. 16 tentative agenda (see 1710270040), Comcast and Charter Communications urged the FCC to reaffirm "longstanding precedent holding that overlashers need not 'obtain additional approval from or consent of the utility for overlashing other than the approval obtained for the host attachment,' and 'are not required to give prior notice to utilities before overlashing,'" said a filing on commission meetings. (Overlashing defined.)