Comcast Cable Communications has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Enforcement Bureau that claims that the Appalachian Power Company (APCO) is not complying with the FCC’s order on pole attachment pricing in Virginia.
The conflict focuses on the $126 million grant to Comcast from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. The service provider is to provide broadband to approximately 13,000 unserved and underserved locations in the commonwealth.
Comcast needs access to APCO’s poles in order to fulfill its obligations. Some of the poles have safety violations that must be remediated. APCO had been charging 20% of the total replacement cost of a new pole on attachers seeking access. The complaint says the FCC put a new pricing scheme in place and that APCO is disregarding it.
The new rule, the Comcast complaint says, is a system in which new attachers only pay the incremental costs of deploying a pole that is high and strong enough to eliminate the violations.
The Comcast pole attachment complaint essentially claims APCO is acting in bad faith:
“Despite the 2026 Order’s clear mandate, APCO has steadfastly refused to comply. Instead of calculating actual incremental costs as the 2026 Order requires, APCO merely updated the cost-allocation methodology rejected by the Commission to charge Comcast a minimum of 20% of the full pole replacement cost — a percentage that bears no relation to, and far exceeds, the incremental cost attributable to the new attacher,” the complaint reads.
“The 20% Minimum Policy ignores the 2026 Order’s holding that APCO ‘may not arbitrarily allocate costs, or seek to shift the costs of remediation of preexisting violations to Comcast, and must be set aside.’”
Comcast asks the court for five things, including a declaration that APCO’s 20% minimum policy is unjust and unreasonable, ordering refunds, and adopting the reimbursement scheme set forth by the FCC.
A Comcast spokesperson provided Telecompetitor with a statement on the pole attachment dispute:
“Expanding access to world‑class broadband for all Americans is essential to our nation’s continued growth and competitiveness, and practices that delay or deny reasonable access to poles harm our nation’s progress by slowing connectivity and limiting economic opportunity. We appreciate the FCC’s significant efforts to date on pole-related issues and look forward to their resolution of this important issue, so broadband deployment can proceed for those Americans who need it most.”
Pole attachments of course are vital to service providers in general and those served by APCO in particular, like Comcast. Mark Polen, Executive Director, West Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association issued this statement on the filing:
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, to see Appalachian Power Company — already the subject of similar enforcement here in West Virginia — called back to answer for continuing to demand unreasonable payments for pole access… We support the FCC’s clear, fair cost-sharing standard established last February, and we believe Comcast’s latest complaint and its speedy resolution is an important step toward reaffirming that standard as binding precedent nationwide and helping to expand economic opportunity for more Americans.”
NCTA–The Internet & Television Association also weighed in on the Comcast pole attachment dispute:
“Fair, reasonable access to utility poles remains one of the biggest obstacles to bringing broadband to unserved communities. The FCC has already established a clear cost-sharing standard, yet some pole owners continue to try and shift unjustified costs onto broadband providers. These actions from pole owners make it harder and more expensive to expand service to rural communities. Enforcing the FCC’s rules is crucial to keeping broadband deployment on track for rural America.”
The pole attachment dispute between Comcast and APCO also is noteworthy because it was the first state in which the FCC’s Rapid Broadband Assessment Team (RBAT) used the Accelerated Docket Process to resolve a dispute.
