The FCC should open a rulemaking to protect ILECs from excessive ...

The FCC should open a rulemaking to protect ILECs from excessive pole attachment fees charged by electric companies and other utilities, ILECs said in comments filed late Fri. Backing a USTelecom petition, the National Telecom Co-op Assn. said the FCC pole attachment rules “unreasonably discriminate against… ILECs” through an inaccurate reading of Sec. 224(b) of the Communications Act. The section, which once protected only cable systems, was expanded by the Telecom Act to include CLECs and other “telecommunications carriers.” But the Act seemed to exclude ILECs from the “telecommunications carriers” definition, so FCC pole attachment rules don’t cover them. And other language in Sec. 224 uses the term “provider of telecommunications service,” which does include ILECs, NTCA said. Sec. 224(b) “should not and was never intended to be exclusive of ILECs,” NTCA said. BellSouth said “ILECs are increasingly experiencing unfair and unreasonable treatment when seeking to attach to the poles of other utilities.” Energy utilities, not ILECs, own the most poles nationwide, so “the assumption that ILECs are always in a superior bargaining position is simply not the case,” BellSouth said in its filing. Some energy utilities “have demanded excessive rates that bear no relation either to the amount of pole space occupied by BellSouth or comparable increases in the Consumer Price Index,” BellSouth said. USTelecom asked the FCC to clarify that ILECs are entitled to reasonable rates under Sec. 224, urging they be allowed to use Commission pole attachment complaint procedures.