FCC Draft Would Approve NCTA/Telco Pole-Attachment Petition, Officials Say
An FCC draft order would approve a cable/telco pole-attachment petition aimed at preventing power companies from charging telecom providers higher rates than they charge cable companies, agency and industry officials told us Friday. After the commission approved an order…
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in 2011 aimed at driving traditionally higher telecom pole-attachment rates down to cable rate levels, NCTA along with Comptel and Level 3 filed a petition for reconsideration asking the agency to close a cost-allocation “loophole” that power companies could use to keep the telecom rates higher. “We are optimistic that the order will promote broadband investment by closing the loophole that enables pole owners to charge higher rates for telecommunications attachments," an NCTA spokesman emailed us. The issue took on more urgency after the FCC in February reclassified broadband as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act because some believe power companies could use the reclassification to charge cable broadband providers the higher telecom rates. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler suggested the agency would take corrective action and he recently circulated a draft order that agency and industry officials told us would approve the NCTA request. Granting NCTA’s petition “would promote broadband investment and competition by ensuring the rate for telecommunications attachments is comparable to the rate for cable attachments in all circumstances, just as the Commission intended” in its 2011 order, said an NCTA filing posted Thursday in docket 07-245. Power companies oppose the petition. A power industry representative had no comment.