CLEC Pole Attachments: Rates, Make-Ready, and Section 224 Complaints

A Competitive Local Exchange Carrier attaching fiber or other facilities to someone else’s utility poles operates under a federal regime built on Section 224 of the Communications Act and the detailed regulations at 47 CFR Part 1, Subpart J. The CLEC pole attachment rules give carriers a right of nondiscriminatory access, put the pole owner on fixed timelines for surveys and make-ready work, cap rent through an FCC formula, and provide self-help and complaint remedies when the utility drags its feet.

Who the Rules Cover

Section 224 defines a pole attachment as any attachment by a cable system or a telecommunications provider to a pole, duct, conduit, or right-of-way owned or controlled by a utility.¹ That reaches fiber, coax, conduits, and associated equipment like junction boxes and amplifiers. The poles are typically owned by electric power companies or incumbent telephone carriers.

The statute’s definition of “utility” excludes railroads, cooperatively organized entities, and government-owned utilities.¹ A CLEC trying to attach to poles owned by a rural electric cooperative or a municipal utility cannot use Section 224 to compel access. Different negotiating leverage, different law.

FCC or State Jurisdiction

Regulatory authority is split. The FCC governs by default, but a state can take over by certifying that it regulates rates, terms, and conditions for attachments and hears complaints. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have exercised this reverse preemption.² In those jurisdictions, the state commission sets the rules and resolves disputes. Check jurisdiction before filing anything: a CLEC operating across multiple states may face FCC rules in some and state-specific rules in others.

Section 224(f) requires utilities to provide nondiscriminatory access to any requesting telecommunications carrier or cable system. An electric utility can deny a request only on narrow grounds: insufficient capacity, or reasons of safety, reliability, and generally applicable engineering purposes.¹ The denial has to be nondiscriminatory, meaning the utility cannot refuse one carrier while allowing a similarly situated competitor onto the same pole. A blanket “no room” answer without engineering documentation invites an FCC complaint.

Application, Survey, and Estimate

The process starts with a written application to the pole owner identifying each pole and the technical specifications of the proposed facilities. The utility has 10 business days to determine whether the application is complete and notify the CLEC. If it doesn’t respond in time, the application is deemed complete.³

Once the application is complete, the utility must field-survey the requested poles within 45 days. For larger orders (up to the lesser of 3,000 poles or 5 percent of the utility’s poles in a state), the survey period extends to 60 days.³ The survey assesses existing attachments, structural integrity, available space, and what modifications, called make-ready, are needed to accommodate the new equipment.

After the survey, the utility has 14 days to provide a detailed, itemized estimate of all make-ready charges. If the CLEC did the survey itself under self-help, the utility still gets 14 days from receipt of that survey to produce its estimate.³ The estimate has to cover every upfront cost: rearranging existing cables, reinforcing or replacing poles, engineering work above the communications space.

Make-Ready Deadlines

Once the CLEC accepts the estimate and pays, the clock starts on the physical work. The windows depend on where on the pole the work happens and how many poles are involved:

Communications space, standard orders: 30 days from notice to existing attachers.
Communications space, larger orders: up to 75 days.
Above the communications space, standard orders: 90 days from notice.
Above the communications space, larger orders: up to 135 days.

Work above the communications space usually means moving electric supply lines or performing structural modifications, which requires different crews and stricter safety protocols. If an existing attacher that was supposed to move its own facilities can’t meet the deadline, it has to notify the new attacher and other affected parties in writing immediately with a new completion date. That extended date cannot exceed 60 days from the original notice, or 105 days for larger orders.³

If final costs differ from the estimate, the utility must provide a detailed, itemized final invoice showing the actual charges incurred.⁴ A single-line bill for “make-ready: $47,000” does not satisfy that requirement. Push back and insist on line-item detail.

One-Touch Make-Ready

For simple work, a CLEC can bypass the standard coordination bottleneck by hiring its own qualified contractor to handle everything in one trip. To use one-touch make-ready, the CLEC elects it in writing in its application and identifies the simple make-ready it intends to perform. The contractor is responsible for determining whether the work qualifies as simple. The utility then has 15 days (30 for larger orders) to approve or deny the application. Within that same window, the utility can object to the simple classification; if it does, the work reclassifies as complex and returns to the standard process.³ The utility’s objection has to be specific, in writing, supported by evidence, and made in good faith.

Once approved, the CLEC gives 15 days’ prior written notice to the utility and all existing attachers before starting. The contractor must meet the qualification requirements in 47 CFR § 1.1412, including adequate insurance or a performance bond.⁵ If anyone discovers mid-project that work classified as simple is actually complex, all work on the affected poles stops immediately and those poles revert to the standard make-ready timeline.

Self-Help When Deadlines Slip

Deadlines mean nothing without enforcement. The most established self-help remedy covers surveys: if a utility knows or should know it cannot meet the 45-day survey deadline, it has to notify the CLEC within 15 days of receiving the complete application, and the CLEC can then conduct the survey itself using a qualified contractor.⁶

The FCC’s 2025 order extended self-help to make-ready estimates. If the utility misses its 14-day estimate deadline (29 days for larger orders), the CLEC can hire an approved contractor to prepare the estimate. The CLEC must wait until the deadline actually expires, provide notice that it’s exercising the remedy, and use a contractor meeting FCC qualification standards. Self-help estimates are not available for pole replacements. The utility keeps the right to review and approve the estimate at the CLEC’s reasonable expense.⁶

Getting contractors approved had been a quiet stalling tactic. The 2025 order requires utilities to respond to contractor-addition requests within 30 days. Miss the window and the contractor is deemed approved automatically.⁶

Overlashing an Existing Attachment

Once a CLEC has an attachment on a pole, adding more wires to it through overlashing does not require the utility’s prior approval. The same rule covers third-party overlashing done with the existing attacher’s permission.⁷ A CLEC can expand capacity on routes where it already has cable without a full application cycle.

The utility can require no more than 15 days’ advance notice. If it identifies a capacity, safety, reliability, or engineering issue, it must provide specific documentation within that 15-day window. The overlashing party then modifies its plan or explains why no modification is needed. The utility cannot charge a fee for reviewing a proposed overlash.⁷

After completing the work, the CLEC notifies the utility within 15 days. The utility then has 90 days to inspect and 14 days after inspection to report any damage or code violations caused by the overlash. The overlashing party pays for its own repairs.⁷ A utility cannot block an overlash because some other attacher on the pole has an unrelated preexisting violation.

How the Rent Is Calculated

The annual rent a CLEC pays for each attachment is set by an FCC formula designed to let the pole owner recover its costs without generating windfall profits. The basic structure: Rate = Space Factor × Cost. The space factor reflects the proportion of usable pole space the attachment occupies. The cost component uses allocators that vary with the average number of attaching entities in a service area:

2 attaching entities: 31% of costs
3 attaching entities: 44%
4 attaching entities: 56%
5 attaching entities: 66%

When the average falls between whole numbers, the percentage is interpolated. The cost equals the applicable percentage multiplied by the net cost of a bare pole times a carrying charge rate for depreciation, taxes, maintenance, and administrative expenses.⁸ CLECs on poles with more attachers pay a lower per-attachment rate because the costs spread more broadly.

Incumbent local exchange carriers are presumptively entitled to the same rate as other telecommunications attachers. A utility that wants to charge an ILEC more must rebut that presumption with clear and convincing evidence that the ILEC receives material benefits under its attachment agreement that other carriers don’t get.⁹

Filing a Section 224 Complaint

When a pole owner charges unreasonable rates, imposes discriminatory terms, or stonewalls access, the CLEC can file a formal complaint. These follow the general Section 208 procedural rules at 47 CFR §§ 1.720–1.740 plus the pole-attachment rules at 47 CFR §§ 1.1401–1.1415.¹⁰

Before filing, the FCC expects the CLEC to contact Media Division staff to discuss the dispute and explore pre-complaint mediation. A formal complaint must include a statement confirming that the relevant state has not certified its own pole attachment authority. That jurisdictional check is a hard prerequisite: if the state has opted into reverse preemption, the complaint goes to the state commission.¹⁰

The FCC can issue cease and desist orders and take whatever action it considers appropriate to enforce its determinations.¹¹ Complaint proceedings often produce negotiated settlements once the pole owner realizes the FCC is engaged, but the commission has set rates and ordered access when talks broke down. Most CLECs treat a formal complaint as a last resort and lean on the timeline rules and self-help remedies first.

1
GovInfo. 47 USC 224 – Pole Attachments
2
Federal Register. Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment
3
eCFR. 47 CFR 1.1411 – Timeline for Access to Utility Poles
4
Federal Communications Commission. Memorandum Opinion and Order – Comcast Cable Communications, LLC v. Appalachian Power Company
5
eCFR. 47 CFR Part 1 Subpart J – Pole Attachment Complaint Procedures
6
Federal Communications Commission. Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment
7
eCFR. 47 CFR 1.1416 – Overlashing
8
Federal Register. Pole Attachment Rates
9
eCFR. 47 CFR 1.1413 – Complaints by Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers
10
Federal Communications Commission. Section 224 Complaints
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 224 – Pole Attachments