FCC Issues Guide on Recent Changes to its Pole Attachment Rules

The FCC has issued a Small Entity Compliance Guide providing pole owners and communications attachers with an overview of changes the FCC made to its pole attachment rules and procedures in a Fourth Report and Order released December 15, 2023.

In its 2023 Order, the FCC adopted a new rule to make more information available to communications providers about the condition of the poles they plan to use for their network deployments. Upon submitting a pole attachment application, an attacher may now request – and the pole owner must provide – information regarding pole conditions and any scheduled pole replacements documented in the pole owner’s latest cyclical pole inspection report or in a more recent pole inspection report. Pole owners are also required to retain copies of their pole inspection reports until a new report covering the same poles is completed. Attachers may then amend their application after receiving information from the pole owner’s inspection report.

The 2023 Order also established a new intra-agency “rapid broadband assessment team” (RBAT) to expedite the resolution of pole attachment disputes involving active broadband deployment projects by coordinating dispute reviews and recommending effective dispute resolution procedures. The FCC also adopted specific criteria to guide the RBAT when assessing whether a complaint should be included on the Enforcement Bureau’s Accelerated Docket.

For more information about the FCC’s Pole Attachment Dispute Resolution Process, or pole attachment processes in general, contact an attorney in our Broadband, Spectrum, and Communications Infrastructure or Utilities practice groups.