In advance of a hearing to be held by the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Communications & Technology Subcommittee on broadband deployment, APPA sent a letter opposing H.R. 278, the BROADBAND Leadership Act, to the bill’s sponsor, Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA), subcommittee members, and subcommittee staff.
“As drafted, H.R. 278 would expand federal control over public power utility infrastructure with serious safety implications and no guarantee that any 'savings' would be passed onto customers,” the letter from APPA said.
“Public power utilities strongly support the goal of increasing broadband deployment. However, we do not believe that this legislation will accomplish that goal. Section 224 of the Communications Act explicitly exempts public power utilities (and rural electric cooperatives) from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) oversight of pole attachments given that oversight is already provided at the local level,” the letter said.
“Cable and telecommunications companies have long worked to convince the FCC and Congress that the municipal exemption from FCC oversight of pole attachment rates and regulations should be eliminated,” the letter added.
“With no evidence, they claim that local control over rates and regulations are major barriers to broadband deployment. As community-owned, not-for-profit entities, public power utilities have no incentive to prevent their own customers from getting access to broadband services. The only reason we would deny a communications attacher’s access to poles is on safety grounds,” APPA said.
APPA said it would be “happy to connect you with public power utilities in Virginia to give you more information on how they handle pole attachment requests at your convenience. Again, public power utilities strongly support broadband expansion, but we do not believe that this bill will accomplish that goal. Thank you for your time and consideration.”
APPA noted that it will report on the hearing, which is scheduled to take place on Sept. 18.
