Electric utilities in Arkansas shouldn't be required to subsidize companies that attach lines to their utility poles, an attorney told the Arkansas Public Service Commission on Tuesday.
"At a minimum, when pole owners pay a greater share for the [shared] space created by the attaching entities, a subsidy results," said Lori Burrows, an attorney for the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. "There are lots of disagreements about the degree of that subsidy, but no one can deny that a subsidy results."
Representatives for the electricity companies and those who attach lines to utility poles testified Tuesday about how the commission should write new guidelines for sharing space on the poles.
Electric utilities own the vast majority of poles in Arkansas, but in many cases cable television operators, telephone companies, Internet providers, telecommunication companies and others attach their wires to the utility poles. In most instances, those attaching companies have negotiated agreements with the electric utilities that own and maintain the poles.
The General Assembly instructed the Public Service Commission in 2007 to establish pole attachment regulations. Those rules, adopted in 2008, required the owners of the poles to give access to the companies that wanted to attach lines to the poles and set up a complaint process, said John Bethel, executive director of the commission's general staff.
But those rules didn't address safety requirements or guidelines for rates to be paid, Bethel said.
"What we've experienced in the intervening years is that the absence of the safety requirements and the rate parameters have made it difficult for the parties to reach a mutually negotiated agreement," Bethel said.
The commission is now considering making changes to those rules established in 2008.
"Obviously we have different views" than the utility companies, Randall Bynum, an attorney representing several businesses, including cable television firms, CenturyLink and Windstream, told the commission. All of his clients attach lines to poles but some also own utility poles, Bynum said.
Bynum noted that one important issue is the deployment of high-speed Internet lines. Arkansas ranks 48th in the deployment of broadband, Bynum said.
"It is incumbent on all of us to take meaningful steps to improve that ranking," Bynum said. "A pivotal aspect of effective regulation is to ensure that pole attachment rates are reasonable in order that broadband deployment is encouraged."
Among the changes proposed by the commission's general staff are modification of a formula established by the Federal Communications Commission to determine the rates that would be paid for space on the pole, Bethel said.
"Our objective is to make sure that the costs of the pole space are fairly allocated among the people who use the pole, including the pole owner," Bethel said.
Since the pole owner uses more of the space, it is allocated more of the expenses, Bethel said. But the costs paid by the pole attachers are higher under the staff's recommendation than under the federal commission's guidelines, Bethel said.
With safety guidelines and guidelines for costs, it should help the parties reach a negotiated agreement, Bethel said.
The hope, too, is that the rates that consumers pay to the electric companies and to other firms that use utility poles are reasonable, Bethel said.
There is no timetable for the commission to make a ruling, Bethel said.
Business on 10/28/2015