Utilities Seek Pole-Rate Parity
Petition FCC to Charge Cable VoIP Providers Higher Telco Rate
by John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 8/21/2009 5:08:41 PM
WASHINGTON — A quartet of electric utilities have asked the Federal Communications Commission for a declaratory ruling that cable operators who provide voice-over-Internet protocol service should pay for attaching to utility poles at the telecom rate rather than the lesser cable rate.
The companies said the FCC should rule that the telecommunications rate charged to traditional phone-service providers for attachments should apply to cable systems providing interconnected VoIP service as well.
"Electricity consumers, many of whom do not subscribe to VoIP services, must not be forced to subsidize cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner Cable," they argued.
Filing the petition were American Electric Power Service, Duke Energy, The Southern Co., and Xcel Energy.
They argued the FCC should make that "clarification" before it takes up any related issues in its broadband notice of inquiry or proposed rulemakings on Internet-protocol services and pole attachments.
The cable industry has argued that utility companies are well-compensated by cable's current payment formula, which has been upheld by the FCC, the Supreme Court (FCC v. Florida Power), and that the FCC has correctly applied the formula to attachments for cable-modem service.
In fact, the cable industry has argued for lowering the rate for everyone to that paid by cable, with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association saying that "adopting a broadband attachment rate for all similarly situated broadband providers that is based on the cable rate formula is the surest way to promote continued deployment and investment in rural areas."
By contrast, said the NCTA: "[R]aising attachment rates for cable operators would raise prices and discourage broadband deployment and adoption, particularly in rural areas."
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