This month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finally
released Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan
(download a PDF of the plan by clicking here). This Plan was required by
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and provides a
"21st century roadmap" of goals and actions necessary to
"harness the power of broadband." The Plan emphasizes the
importance of infrastructure access, including access to utility
poles, to the deployment of broadband facilities.
The Plan recommends uniform rental rates for pole attachments
that are as low as possible. The Plan states that "[a]pplying
different rates based on whether the attacher is classified as a
'cable' or 'telecommunications' company distorts
attachers' deployment decisions." Plan at 110. The Plan
supports use of the formula currently used to establish rates for
cable television service providers.
