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                                                                                  JUDICIARY 

                                                                               SMALL BUSINESS AND 
                                     November 20, 2023                          ENTRE PRENEURSHIP 

      The Honorable Jessica Rosenworcel                               1065
      Chairwoman 
      Federal Communications Commission 
      45 L Street NE 
      Washington, DC 20554 

      Dear Chairwoman Rosenworcel: 

      I understand that the Federal Communications Commission ("the Commission") is moving closer 
      to a final decision in its long-standing pole-attachment proceeding. As I have written before, 
      Louisianans for too long have been left out of broadband deployment plans completely or promised 
      that high-speed broadband is coming "soon" only to learn that pole-related issues have derailed 
      those promises. Enough is enough-it is time for the trail of broken promises to end. 
      Unprecedented federal investment now exists to close the digital divide for good in my state (and 
      the rest of the country), but only if every effort is made to clear the path for that investment to 
      reach its potential. Action in the Commission's pole proceeding is pivotal to ensure a clear 
      pathway for this broadband investment. 

      But it is not enough for the Commission to simply take some action in the pole proceeding. It 
      needs to take meaningful action to address pole-attachment costs and delays that threaten 
      deployment of high-quality home broadband infrastructure. We have seen firsthand in my state 
      how  extended pole-attachment delays for broadband providers, along with excessive and 
      inequitable attachment costs, are jeopardizing deployment efforts to thousands and thousands of 
      unserved households. Decisive action is needed, and the Commission has the opportunity and 
      responsibility to be a leader on this issue. 

      Based on the record in this proceeding and the experience in my state and others, the following 
      actions are vital in any Commission decision: 

         •  Pole replacement costs need to be allocated equitably. The Commission must implement 
            a fair and economically sound cost-sharing regime for pole replacement. Pole owners are 
            using attachment requests as an opportunity to replace their aging poles while having the 
            attaching broadband provider foot the entire bill for that new pole. This one-sided 
            allocation of costs makes little sense when the pole owner benefits from the new pole, owns 
            the pole, charges rent to attachers for being on the pole, and enjoys tax benefits from 
            depreciating the pole. The pole owner paying nothing for the cost of the pole replacement 
            and the attaching broadband provider paying everything is clearly not a "fair apportionment 
            of costs" as required under the statute. Failure of the Commission to right this wrong and 

      institute a fair allocation of costs will directly jeopardize the goal of bringing broadband to 
      unserved homes in America. 

   •  Pole owners should not be allowed needlessly to inject additional costs and delays into 
      the pole-attachment process. Certain pole owners (including those seeking to provide 
      broadband) hurt timely and efficient deployment by layering into the pole-attachment 
      process unnecessary requests and barriers to pole access, including application-processing 
      delays, arbitrary limits on the number of applications or poles per application, unnecessary 
      engineering studies, limits on well-established construction techniques, and withholding 
      needed technical information. The Commission needs to put a stop to this harmful and 
      discriminatory treatment of broadband providers to ensure deployment is a success. 

The Commission has jurisdiction to act on these issues. And meaningful action will not only go a 
long way to curbing the problematic behavior of some pole owners regulated by the FCC, but it 
will provide helpful guidance to all pole owners. After all , the Commission's rules and precedents 
are used as a benchmark for reasonable pole-owner behavior everywhere. 

I ask that the Commission do its part to eliminate remaining deployment barriers like delayed and 
costly pole access so that precious tax-payer dollars are maximized, and unserved Louisianans and 
others throughout the country get broadband access as quickly as possible. 

                                   Sincerely, 

                         ~wJ:hn       Kennedy      
                              United States Senator