Utilities Want "Light Touch" FCC Wireless Pole-Attachment Rule, Separate From Wireline Rules
Electric utilities urged the FCC to craft "light touch" wireless pole-attachment regulation, and to do so separately from wireline pole-attachment issues. "Wireless antenna attachments are fundamentally different than wireline pole attachments, from both an economic and physical perspective, and should…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
be treated differently," said American Electric Power Service and Georgia Power in a filing posted Tuesday on meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly (they also discussed the issue in a meeting with Wireline Bureau staffers). The power companies said the FCC "should take a completely different approach with wireless pole attachments" and not simply "convert" wireline rules to wireless antennas. "It should take an approach that moves away from rock-bottom rates and access micromanagement and adopt regulatory policies that encourage cooperation and incentivize innovative deployment solutions," they said, urging "light touch" treatment that encourages negotiated solutions. In a meeting with Office of General Counsel staffers, the utilities said an April 2017 NPRM's proposed revisions to Rule 1.1424 would be unlawful: "the presumption in the proposed revisions ... (i.e. that ILECS are 'similarly situated' with [cable operators] and CLECs with respect to attachments on electric utility poles) would be at odds with the facts. Not only did Congress, in the 1996 [Telecommunications] Act, specifically treat ILECs differently than [cable operators]/CLECs, but the Commission also reached the same conclusion on a full record in 2011." In a meeting with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, they also made arguments from a previous submission responding to USTelecom filings (see 1804250036).