FCC Seeks Comment on Cable/CLEC Pole Attachment Proposal
The FCC Wireline Bureau asked parties to refresh the record on a cable/CLEC 2011 petition to revise a telecom rate formula to better allocate costs among carriers attaching lines to poles, which are most often owned by electric utilities. In…
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a 2011 order, the FCC took steps to drive down the pole-attachment rates paid by telecom carriers to levels comparable to what cable broadband providers paid. Crafting a new telecom formula, the FCC assumed there would generally be five entities attaching to poles in urban areas and three in rural areas, which when combined with other assumptions, yielded a telecom rate equal to the cable rate. But the telecom formula didn't further lower costs -- and, thus, rates -- when more entities attached lines to poles than assumed. Comptel, NCTA and tw telecom (now Level 3) filed a reconsideration petition asking that the telecom rate rules "be clarified or amended by specifying [that] the cost allocator to be applied [will be] based on the number of attaching entities." Cable broadband providers used to be able to claim the lower cable pole-attachment rates but over time were sometimes subjected to the telecom rates, and now appear to be squarely covered by the telecom formula under the FCC reclassification of broadband Internet access as a Communications Act Title II telecom service, an industry official said. Comments are due 21 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register, replies 10 days later, the Wednesday notice said.