12 Days of Broadband

12 Days: Pole Attachment Changes in 2023 Set Stage for BEAD Implementation

Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC's recent move was an effort to ease friction for BEAD deployments.

Jake Neenan

Dec 22, 2023 — 4 min read

Illustration by DALL-E

December 22, 2023 – Pole attachments continued to be a hot button issue in 2023 as the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program got closer to breaking ground.

Broadband providers often attach fiber to wood poles owned by utility companies when expanding their infrastructure. Those poles sometimes need to be replaced to accommodate the extra equipment, either because the pole cannot bear additional weight or to comply with zoning laws.

The 12 Days of Broadband 2023 (click to open)

On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
One Artificial General Intelligence
On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
24 Reverse-Preemption Pole Attachment States (2023 edition)
On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
$3.6 Billion Funds Remaining in the Affordable Connectivity Program
On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
4.8 Million Challenges to Broadband Coverage Data
On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
56 States and Territorial Broadband Offices Implementing BEAD
On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
One-hundred-and 66 Billion Dollars of American Semiconductor Investment
On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
7 Layers to the Open Systems Interconnection Model and Open Access Networks
On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
The Number 8 As a Representation of Balance, Justice and Fairness
On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
93 Percent Match of Federal Funds for Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Program
On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
Nearly 10 Months Without FCC Spectrum Auction Authority
On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
More Than 11 Years in Lawsuits Over Net Neutrality
On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me:
12 Year Olds (and Older) Having to Age-Verify on Social Media

The biggest disagreement centers on which party has to pay for those replacements. The Federal Communications Commission has authority under the Communications Act to set the terms of pole attachment deals between telecommunications providers and investor-owned utilities. That doesn’t cover all broadband deployments as some broadband providers are not registered telecom carriers and some poles are publicly owned, not to mention the 24 states with their own laws reverse-preempting the FCC on the issue, but it’s a big enough deal for telecoms and utilities to push the agency to intervene.