Fla. Pole Attachment Rules Not 'Despotic,' ALJ Rules

An administrative law judge dismissed AT&T’s challenge of Florida Public Service Commission pole attachment rules Wednesday. The failure of AT&T’s appeal means the PSC could approve a certification to reverse preempt the FCC’s pole attachment authority as soon as its July 7 meeting (see 2205160059). The Florida commission "properly engaged in rulemaking, considered the interests of regulated entities and their consumers, made changes to the rule based thereon, and ultimately approved the Proposed Rule based on that robust process," said Florida Division of Administrative Hearings ALJ Andrew Manko. The carrier had said the PSC should explicitly use FCC rules as the default. But Manko said the PSC "reasonably chose not to include methodologies so that it could develop precedent on those substantive standards through the unique adjudicatory process mandated by the Legislature." Florida's pole attachment rules aren't "illogical, unreasonable, despotic, or arbitrary and capricious," said Manko: Nothing in the federal Communications Act Section 224(c) "requires a state to adopt a specific methodology in its rules, much less to certify that it has done so," and not adopting a specific method doesn't contravene Florida law's requiring the state rules, "even if that statute were interpreted to require compliance with the federal certification standards,” he said. The Florida commission filed the rule Thursday with the state department, and it will take effect June 8, said a PSC spokesperson: Florida still must certify its pole attachment authority to the FCC. AT&T didn’t comment.