FCC Grants in Part, Denies in Part Verizon, Potomac Edison Pole Petitions

The FCC Enforcement Bureau dismissed in part Verizon's petition for reconsideration on procedural grounds and granted in part a request for clarification of a 2020 order saying Potomac Edison charged the telco "unjust and unreasonable" pole attachment rates, said an order Thursday in docket 19-355 (see 2012280034). Verizon's petition doesn't identify "any new, different, or distinct argument on this issue," the bureau said. It also denied the telco's petition on the merits, citing "no valid basis to delete the findings requested in the petition." The bureau granted Verizon's request for clarification that its previous order "only requires the parties to modify the [joint use agreement] to conform with the rulings in the order and does not require the parties to otherwise negotiate a completely new agreement." The bureau also granted in part and denied in part Potomac Edison's petition for reconsideration. The bureau partially granted its request to change the rate of return input to apply a 9.68% rate "from the beginning of the damages period through the end of 2018," a 7.7% rate for 2019, and a 7.15% rate from 2020 forward. It denied Potomac Edison's challenge of the appurtenance factor finding as "procedurally defective" and on the merits, saying the company "failed to explain its claim to have rebutted the 85% presumption." The bureau also rejected Potomac Edison's challenge to the space-occupied input and the average number of attachers in the rate formula. Verizon and Potomac Edison didn't comment.