N.Y. PSC Won't Shift Pole Replacement Costs to Owners

The New York Public Service Commission rejected calls by Charter Communications and others to make pole owners pay a portion of pole replacement costs when adding an attachment is required. The New York PSC on Monday released its order revising pole attachment rules after adopting the decision unanimously last week (see 2407180028). The PSC adopted one-touch, make-ready for simple attachments in the communications spaces, set dispute resolution time frames, created a pole-attachments working group and added annual reporting requirements (docket 22-M-0101). But it disagreed with arguments about changing a state policy that says that the attacher pays if a pole needs replacement only to accommodate the proposed new attachment, whereas the owner pays if the pole already needed replacement due to its poor condition. Charter and other attachers previously argued that owners benefit from replacements even in the first case and therefore should share costs (see 2403050043). But in Monday’s order, the commission said those companies provided no "quantifiable analysis" or other evidence supporting their assertions that PSC staff failed to consider a pole owner's incentive to shift replacement costs and incorrectly concluded that owners don't benefit from the replacements. Staff determined "that ratepayers do not receive any economic value of poles being replaced to enable third-party attachments even when the attacher entirely funds such replacements,” the PSC said. "Electric utilities do not have an incentive to require attachers to pay for pole replacements because utilities do not earn a return or depreciation expense on contributed assets such as third-party funded pole replacements.” The FCC declined in a December order to shift replacement costs to pole owners, the PSC added. And the PSC doesn’t want to see higher electric rates, it said. "While expanding broadband in New York is critically important, utility customer funds are not unlimited.” Also in the order, while allowing certain alternative types of attachments on a case-by-case basis, the PSC denied Verizon's request to open up the pole's electric space for telecom attachments. "The electric space is designated for qualified and approved electric workers and only includes electric facilities to help protect those working in that space as well as ensure the work performed is done professionally and to code to satisfy reliability and resiliency concerns,” the PSC said. “Opening up the electric space to additional or alternative pole attachment methods raises significant safety, reliability and resiliency concerns and negatively impacts these efforts."