Pole Attachment Disputes Over Costs, Timelines and Safety at Broadband Breakfast Event
Industry officials clashed over pole replacement costs, make-ready timelines, and federal regulatory authority.
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2026 — Broadband providers and a representative of an electric utility disagreed Wednesday over who should pay for pole replacements, how fast make-ready work should happen, and whether federal regulators are helping or overstepping.
At a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event, industry officials and academics weighed in on a fight that could determine whether the nation's largest-ever broadband subsidy program meets its deadlines.
And an official representing the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which controls many poles, warned that its members’ infrastructure is not a public utility for the broadband industry to commandeer.
Broadband Breakfast
