As states work to distribute $42.5 billion in federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program funding, electric cooperatives once again find themselves in the crosshairs of large cable and telecommunications companies who want cheap, easy access to their infrastructure. 

New rules and regulatory deadlines from the Federal Communications Commission currently apply only to investor-owned utilities, but attachers are lobbying state governments to impose similar rules on co-ops.

“The goal of the BEAD program is to bring broadband access to every home and business in America," said NRECA Senior Regulatory Affairs Director Brian O'Hara. “Most unserved locations are likely in rural electric co-op territory, which means grant awardees will need to attach to your poles to meet their broadband deployment obligations. Co-ops should be thinking about what they will need to prepare for this surge in requests."

NRECA will host a free webinar on Oct. 17 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET to discuss efforts to shape federal and state pole attachment policies. The event will be moderated by O'Hara and will include a regulatory update by Tom Magee from the law firm Keller & Heckman.

O'Hara said NRECA supports meaningful efforts to enhance broadband deployment and remove barriers to those projects without adding undue burdens on utility pole owners. Co-ops charge cost-based rates for attachments that represent a small fraction of the overall cost to build and maintain broadband systems in rural areas. By renting space on co-op poles, broadband providers avoid the far greater cost and responsibility of creating their own networks from scratch.

The FCC has proposed measures to support broadband deployment, including having communications companies remove unused attachments and notify pole owners well in advance of major buildouts. But NRECA has warned the commission against other ideas.

In a Sept. 3 letter, the association urged the FCC to reconsider proposals that NRECA says will increase costs and further delay broadband projects, including a potential requirement that utility pole owners provide pole inspection reports and utility easements to attachers.

The mandate would create “useless, time-consuming distractions from the more important work utility pole owners should be doing to accommodate attachment requests," O'Hara said in the letter.

“Requiring pole owners to provide copies of such easements creates opportunities for a vast number of potential disputes about state law, language in individual easements and access rights, which state courts, not administrative agencies, would be required to resolve."

He encouraged the FCC to focus on examples of state actions to resolve easement issues “rather than focusing on additional requirements that will only slow the process and increase costs."

The Oct. 17 webinar is open to all NRECA voting members and affiliate members. Click here to register.