Utility Pole Attachments and Joint Use

Keller and Heckman advocates vigorously for a large number of investor-owned utility, electric cooperative, and municipal utility pole owners regarding the attachment of wireline and wireless communications facilities to electric distribution poles, conduits, and rights-of-way. We routinely draft and negotiate pole attachment and joint use agreements, calculate and defend pole attachment and joint use rental rates, and help utilities understand and comply with complex, ever-changing federal and state pole attachment and joint use regulations.
 
We develop business-oriented and common-sense pole attachment strategies to enable electric utility clients to operate their pole plant more efficiently, safeguard distribution assets, protect against potential liabilities, and maximize pole attachment rentals and cost recovery. We have successfully negotiated and resolved (and litigated where necessary) countless disputes concerning make-ready engineering and construction costs, unauthorized attachments, safety violations, annual rental rates, and all other terms and conditions of access.

For decades, our attorneys have been leading and vigorous advocates for electric utility pole owners in litigation, rulemaking, and legislative proceedings before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state commissions, federal and state courts, the U.S. Congress, and state legislatures.

Representative Matters

• Represented well-known coalitions of investor-owned utility clients in every significant pole attachment rulemaking proceeding at the FCC in the past 20 years
• Advocated successfully for multiple electric cooperative statewide associations and investor-owned utilities for favorable pole attachment regulations and legislation in several states
• Represented a major utility trade association and large urban county in the appeal of FCC’s Small Cell Wireless Order before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, City of Portland vs. United States, 969 F.3d 1020 (9th Cir. 2020)
• Drafted the model pole attachment agreements being used by two different electric utility trade associations
• Drafted and negotiated hundreds of pole attachment and joint use contracts regarding access to utility poles, ducts, and conduits
• Assisted a mid-size capital city in developing, negotiating, and implementing a complex, innovative, and successful wireless right-of-way siting ordinance, having the support of both the wireless industry and the civic association