Pennsylvania PUC Adopts Pole Attachment Rules Changes Reflecting FCC Revisions
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted 4-1 Thursday to approve the FCC’s December changes to pole attachment replacement rules, which clarified transparency requirements for pole owners and established an intra-agency “rapid broadband assessment team” to review pole attachment disputes and recommend solutions (see 2312130044). The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 later in the day to approve state rules implementing volume 2 of its plan for rolling out the $1.86 billion allocation from NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program (see 2408260027).
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The Pennsylvania PUC’s pole attachment order becomes effective Oct. 9, said Chairman Stephen DeFrank. Wireless carriers last month strongly supported the PUC adopting the FCC’s rule changes, while energy companies opposed the action (see 2408270041). The FCC’s pole attachment transparency requirement “is in the public interest as it provides transparency to interested attachers that can lead to efficiencies and help avoid wasteful expenditures,” DeFrank said ahead of the commission’s adoption of the revised rules. Vice Chair Kimberly Barrow voted against the order but didn’t comment.
DeFrank also praised the FCC’s rapid broadband assessment team (RBAT) and associated “expedited resolution of disputes between poll owners and attachers” via the FCC’s accelerated docket. The PUC “can incorporate this accelerated docket into our processes and procedures to support the necessary deployment of broadband across Pennsylvania,” he said: The PUC already “has a dispute resolution process in its existing poll attachment regulations,” but the FCC’s “accelerated procedural time frame better accommodates [the state’s] current and future broadband deployment needs.”
DeFrank directed that the PUC’s Law Bureau prepare an order to implement its version of the FCC pole attachment rules in response to “comments received from interested stakeholders that more time is needed to examine how” the RBAT regulations fit within the PUC’s “existing framework, including how to address conflicts among parties regarding the application of accelerated litigation schedules.” He encouraged “parties to consider using the services of the Commission's mediation unit to resolve any applicable disputes.”
CPUC President Alice Reynolds and two other commissioners -- Karen Douglas and John Reynolds -- backed the BEAD proposal from Commissioner Darcie Houck. Commissioner Matthew Baker recused himself. The CPUC submitted both volumes of its initial plan to NTIA on Dec. 26. ISPs and consumer advocates sought tweaks to the draft rules CPUC released in August (see 2409130039). A final version of the proposal wasn’t available Thursday.
Meanwhile, NTIA said Thursday it approved initial BEAD proposals for Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota and South Carolina. The agency allocated Georgia more than $1.3 billion, Iowa more than $415 million, Minnesota more than $651 million, and South Carolina more than $551 million. NTIA has approved initial BEAD plans for 44 eligible jurisdictions, including clearing New Jersey’s proposal earlier this month (see 2409090009).