Co-ops tell FCC revising pole attachment regulations will delay BEAD builds

While Chairman Brendan Carr's Federal Communications Commission continues to highlight efforts to strip and streamline regulations to get broadband deployed faster, some stakeholders are saying a proposed change to how pole attachments are regulated would do the opposite. In comments filed to the FCC, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) pushed back on questions the Commission posed in a June 11 public notice, seeking input "on the current status of reverse-preemption state regulation and jurisdiction over pole attachments, as well as the Commission's jurisdiction in the face of incomplete or inadequate state regulation." Reverse-preemption essentially allows a state to set the rules in some cases rather than the federal government. Usually the opposite is true, with federal rules taking precedence over state or local ones. The FCC's public notice asserts that, while 23 states and the District of Columbia have reverse-preempted the FCC's jurisdiction over pole attachments by certifying that they regulate pole attachments locally, "there have been recent reports of challenges to deployment stemming from state regulation of pole attachments, or the lack thereof, and the potential for noncompliance with the Commission's rules pertaining to reverse-preemption."