On July 26, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) issued a Public Notice announcing that new pole attachment rules, which the FCC adopted in a December 2023 Report and Order, are effective as of July 25, 2024....more
On December 15, 2023, after more than three years of consideration, and amid the largest ever federal investment in broadband, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) unanimously adopted a new pole-attachment order that...more
After more than three years of consideration, amidst the largest federal and state investment in broadband deployment, and anticipating disputes between broadband providers and utility pole owners concerning the terms and...more
On June 5, 2023, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB1221, subjecting rural electric cooperatives to pole attachment regulation by the Florida Public Service Commission (“FPSC”) if they provide broadband service....more
On February 17, 2023, Georgetown Broadband LLC (GBLLC) became the latest community broadband entity to receive pole attachment authorization from the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to deploy a fiber broadband...more
The New York Public Service Commission ("Commission") entered an Order this month authorizing municipally owned electric utilities to significantly increase the annual rental rates charged to cable system operators and...more
A utility company that provides service to an owner’s property usually requests the owner to sign a standard form of easement. The form of easement allows the utility company to enter onto the owner’s property to install and...more
On April 28, the governor of Oklahoma approved HB3835, setting a maximum pole attachment rate for rural electric cooperatives (Rural Coops) in the event of a dispute with a "communications services provider" regarding pole...more
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has circulated for consideration at its March 16 open meeting a draft Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) seeking comment on whether the agency should further...more
2021 was a very active year for regulatory developments related to communications infrastructure in California. Several proceedings of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) were intended to: (i) enhance...more
On September 21, 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued the latest single in its anthology of decisions regulating the relationship between incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) and electric utilities,...more
On June 28, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari filed by consortiums of various municipal governments and associations seeking to overturn the Ninth Circuit's decision in City of Portland v. FCC,...more
Oppose SB 556: Hearing Set for April 19 - Four years after California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 649, an industry-sponsored “small cell” bill, the wireless industry is back with another bill: SB 556....more
People are electrocuted and killed after car crashes every year. Tragically, it is not the car accident itself that causes their fatal injuries, but it is their deadly exposure to high voltage electricity that occurs when a...more
On August 12, 2020, a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed three orders issued in 2018 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promote infrastructure investment and broadband deployment, including 5G small cell nodes. In...more
— Lone issue on 5G "aesthetics" in Small Cell Order remanded to FCC — Dissent limited to disagreeing with FCC's above-cost prohibitions on municipal fees in Small Cell Order - On August 12, 2020, a panel of the 9th Circuit in...more
Some Notable Changes Made to the "One Touch Make-Ready" Rules and Declaratory Ruling Prohibiting State and Local Moratoria on Wireline and Wireless Deployment - Note: This advisory has been updated to reflect that the ILEC...more
Pennsylvania will become the twenty-first state to certify to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it regulates third-party attachments to electric utility and telephone poles. ...more
On Monday August 12, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Enforcement Bureau issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in MAW Communications, Inc. v. PPL Electric Utilities Corp., finding that PPL had unlawfully denied...more
The Village Board for the Village of Woodbury, New York (“Village”) is considering a new law that would require a permit in order to erect or maintain an eruv in any public street, right-of-way or easement. ...more
A policy provision that has been rarely litigated, but often disputed, is the exclusion for above-ground electrical transmission and distribution lines....more
Some Notable Changes Made to the “One Touch Make-Ready” Rules and Declaratory Ruling Prohibiting State and Local Moratoria on Wireline and Wireless Deployment - Late Friday the FCC released the text of its Third Report and...more
The FCC, at its Open Meeting today, adopted its Third Report and Order and Declaratory Ruling (“Order”) in the wireline infrastructure docket which, among other things, implements one-touch make-ready (“OTMR”) and prohibits...more
After a year of heated debate between pole owners and service providers, the FCC is poised to adopt a one-touch make-ready (“OTMR”) process for the “vast majority” of pole attachments at its meeting on August 2, 2018. Late...more
New “One Touch Make-Ready” Regime Proposed with Shortened Timeframes and Revised Terms for Completing Pole Attachment - Draft Declaratory Ruling Would Prohibit State and Local Moratoria on Wireline and Wireless Deployment...more