Florida Power Asks FCC To Reject Verizon Pole-Attachment Complaint
Florida Power and Light says Verizon hasn't come close to proving its case in its pole-attachment complaint against the power company. In its opposition to the complaint in FCC docket 15-73, FPL said Verizon has had more than 40 years,…
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two complaint filings, four economist declarations, four additional affidavits and thousands of pages of documents to make its arguments to demonstrate that it was paying too much for the right to use the "infrastructure that FPL designed, constructed and maintained for Verizon." The FCC should dismiss or deny the complaint, "given that the burden of proof was squarely on Verizon," FPL said. Saying the FCC dismissed Verizon's first complaint Feb. 11, FPL said Verizon's most recent complaint "inexcusably fails again to address the value of FPL having granted voluntary access" to its network of poles and easements. "The sum total of the benefits provided Verizon and the obligations borne by FPL for Verizon dwarf Verizon's claims of overpayment and, at the very least, establish that Verizon's annual payment of a joint use attachment fee of approximately $35 to $37 per pole is eminently just and reasonable," FPL said. After the first complaint was dismissed, Verizon refiled its complaint March 13 with supplemental information identified by the FCC Enforcement Bureau that the telco said further establishes its right to pay the same rates FPL charges other competitors. "This long-standing pole attachment dispute involves the continuing efforts of FPL to use a contractual evergreen clause to forever charge Verizon rental rates that are nearly four times the rates FPL may charge Verizon’s competitors -- even though Verizon terminated the parties’ forty-year-old Joint Use Agreement nearly three years ago after repeated attempts to resolve the rate issue with FPL proved futile," Verizon said. "In its February 11, 2015 Order, the Enforcement Bureau rejected the vast majority of FPL’s reasons for resisting Verizon’s ability to maintain pole attachments at the rates envisioned by the Commission’s Pole Attachment Order. In particular, the Bureau made clear that, since July 12, 2011, Verizon has been entitled to a just and reasonable rate from FPL for pole attachments."