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 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
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
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
A policy provision that has been rarely litigated, but often disputed, is the exclusion for above-ground electrical transmission and distribution lines....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
CPUC Commissioner’s Meeting - The next Commission meeting is scheduled for 5/31/18. Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) (R.1502-020) - On 5/26/17, the ALJ issued a proposed decision implementing new compliance...more
CPUC Commissioner’s Meeting - The next Commission meeting is scheduled for 5/10/18 in Fontana, CA. Items of Interest: #10 Decision establishing reentry fees and financial security requirements for CCA’s. R.03-10-003...more
CPUC Commissioner’s Meeting - The next Commission meeting is scheduled for 4/26/18. Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) (R.1502-020) - On 5/26/17, the ALJ issued a proposed decision implementing new compliance...more
Fla. Stat. § 725.06 limits the scope of indemnification provisions in construction contracts. Specifically, the statute limits the ability of an indemnitee (e.g., owner) to require an indemnitor (e.g., contractor) to...more
On August 16, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in favor of the Louisville Metro Council to uphold the city’s recently-enacted ordinance amendments providing for...more
On Friday, October 30, 2015, the Assigned Commissioner to a rulemaking at the California Public Utility Commission (“CPUC”) issued a Proposed Decision to extend the state’s pole, conduit and right of way access rights to...more
On October 21, 2015, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (“WUTC”) adopted a comprehensive set of pole attachment rules (hereinafter “Pole Attachment Rules”), following a year-and-a-half-long rulemaking and...more
The Order recognizes that the deployment of communications networks and broadband infrastructure depends heavily on access to utility poles on reasonable rates, terms and conditions. Accordingly, the Order declined to...more
In recent separate actions, the Public Utility Commission of Ohio (“PUCO”) and the Louisiana Public Service Commission (“LPSC”) adopted comprehensive pole attachment regulatory regimes intended to facilitate the deployment of...more
This is a story of persistence and perseverance, if not patience. The cable industry finally obtained some control over skyrocketing pole attachment rates charged by cooperative utilities in North Carolina when the...more