Rural Electric Cooperatives: Pole Attachment Policies and Issues

Pole attachment rental rates are a fraction of the overall cost to build broadband systems in rural areas. Rather, the major impediments to rural broadband development are low population densities, high capital costs and other major operating expenses in rural areas. Because electric cooperatives are led by and belong to the communities they serve, they are keenly familiar with these challenges. The same economic factors that prevented for-profit electric utilities from extending service to rural areas in the 1930s exists today in relation to broadband. Policymakers should focus on these steps to close the digital divide and provide rural communities access to broadband:

  1. Improving the accuracy and veracity of broadband data to better identify and understand services gaps.
  2. Prioritize broadband funding, especially government grants, to projects in areas with the lowest population densities since that is the greatest barrier to deployment.
  3. Provide adequate funding to build broadband networks that will meet the growing speed and data needs.

Rural Electric Cooperatives: Pole Attachment Policies and Issues