Cable Re-ups Push for Pole Attachment Timelines

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2025 – The cable industry is re-upping its push for federal regulators to set a blanket timeline for large pole attachment orders. Some utility companies that own those poles have opposed the idea.

Representatives from Comcast and Cox, as well as NCTA, the industry’s main trade group, met with Federal Communications Commission staff last Thursday and Friday to renew their push for a 120-day make-ready timeline for attachment requests between 3,000 and 6,000 poles. That’s the time a pole owner has to prepare and sometimes replace poles so a communications provider can attach new equipment.

The subsequent ex parte letter was strongly worded: “NCTA expressed that it is imperative that cable operators and other communications attachers have effective tools to address delays in addressing attachment requests from pole owners that lack the same incentives to make broadband deployment successful and close the digital divide.” Utilities, for their part, have argued the delays ISPs often complain about are the result of contractor shortages rather than intentional slow-walking.

The cable representatives met with senior legal staff for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, plus personnel from the Wireline Competition bureau and Commissioner Nathan Simington’s office. 

The FCC can set the terms of pole attachment deals between investor-owned utility companies and telecommunications providers, which include some but not all ISPs. That authority is preempted by state laws in 23 states and D.C., but it’s significant enough for pole owners and attachers to consistently bring disputes about replacement cost allocation and other issues to the agency.

The agency set up a dedicated team in 2023 to mediate those disagreements, fearing pole attachment issues could delay build outs funded by the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. In adopting that order, commissioners also sought input on setting up a mandatory timeline for orders larger than 3,000 poles – there’s a 75-day window for orders up to that, but companies are left to negotiate anything larger for themselves. The rulemaking is still open.

Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric companies, has told the FCC any timeline for so-called grant-sized orders, like the one proposed by NCTA, should be conditioned on a notice at least 60 days in advance, and to allow for deviations.

“Such a timeline should include a longer period to provide pole owners with as much time as possible to address the complexity of such orders,” the group wrote in a September 2024 filing following a staff meeting. 

A group of major national electric utilities, including Duke Energy and Southern Company, told the agency last year that “adding even more regulatory deadlines to the Commission’s rules will do nothing to address the primary impediment to timely roll-out of large broadband deployments: the scarcity of approved contractor resources.” The Utilities Technology Council has also opposed the idea.