BILL REQ. #:  S-0357.2 

Read first time 01/30/2007.   Referred to Committee on Water, Energy & Telecommunications.

     AN ACT Relating to regulating utility pole attachments; amending RCW 54.04.045; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature has declared that the policy of the state of Washington is to maintain and advance the efficiency and availability of telecommunications services and to promote diversity and competition among telecommunications services and product providers. The legislature has found that telecommunications facilities and services are essential to the economic well-being of both rural and urban areas.
     The legislature finds that public utility districts that own utility poles and that are exempt from the pole attachment provisions under chapter 80.54 RCW have sought to charge multiple attachment fees on the same pole and have used attachment rates, terms, and conditions that are inconsistent with the pole attachment provisions under chapter 80.54 RCW and federal communications commission regulations. The legislature finds that these practices: (1) Are inconsistent with the policy of the state; (2) do not advance the efficiency or availability of telecommunications facilities in rural or urban areas; (3) do not encourage the introduction of competition, making the use of these essential facilities difficult for providers of telecommunications and cable television services; and (4) result in excessive litigation costs, the courts being the only recourse available to licensees who do not agree to contract terms. Consequently, the regulation of rates, terms, and conditions for pole attachments with public utility districts is in the public interest. Furthermore, the joint use of these facilities is in the public's interest because duplication of these facilities by telecommunications or cable television service providers would be uneconomical, unattractive, and contrary to the public interest.

Sec. 2   RCW 54.04.045 and 1996 c 32 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) As used in this section:
     (a) "Attachment" means the affixation or installation of any wire, cable, or other physical material capable of carrying electronic impulses or light waves for the carrying of intelligence for telecommunications or television, including((,)) but not limited to cable, and any related device, apparatus, or auxiliary equipment upon any pole, duct, conduit, manhole, or handhole, or other similar facilities owned or controlled in whole or in part by one or more locally regulated utilities where the installation has been made with the necessary consent.
     (b) "Licensee" means any person, firm, corporation, partnership, company, association, joint stock association, or cooperatively organized association, which is authorized to construct attachments upon, along, under, or across the public ways.
     (c) "Locally regulated utility" means a public utility district ((not subject to rate or service regulation by the utilities and transportation commission)) created in chapter 54.08 RCW.
     (c) "Nondiscriminatory" means that pole owners may not arbitrarily differentiate among or between similar classes of ((persons)) licensees approved for attachments.
     (2) ((All)) (a) The utilities and transportation commission shall adopt procedures necessary to hear and resolve licensee complaints concerning the rates, terms, and conditions made, demanded, or received by a locally regulated utility for attachments ((to its poles)) by licensees. All rates, terms, and conditions made, demanded, or received by any locally regulated utility for any attachment by a licensee must be just, fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and sufficient. ((A locally regulated utility shall levy attachment space rental rates that are uniform for the same class of service within the locally regulated utility service area.))
     (b) If the utilities and transportation commission finds, after a hearing to address a licensee complaint, that the rates, terms, or conditions demanded, exacted, charged, or collected by any locally regulated utility in connection with attachments are unjust, unfair, unreasonable, or that the rates or charges are insufficient to yield a reasonable compensation for the attachments, the commission shall determine and fix just, fair, reasonable, or sufficient rates, terms, and conditions for the attachments to be observed and followed thereafter by any locally regulated utility. In determining and fixing the rates, terms, and conditions, the commission shall consider the interest of the customers of the attaching licensee as well as the interest of the customers of the locally regulated utility upon which the attachment is made.
     (c) A just, fair, and reasonable rate must be determined on a per pole basis rather than a per attachment basis, and the rate must allow a locally regulated utility to recover at least all of the additional costs of procuring and maintaining pole attachments but no more than the utility's actual capital and operating expenses, including just compensation, attributable to that portion of the pole, duct, conduit, manhole, handhole, or other similar facilities used for the pole attachment, including a share of the required support and clearance space in proportion to the space used for the pole attachment, as compared to all other uses made of the subject facilities and uses that remain available to the owner or owners of the subject facilities.
     (3) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, nothing in this section shall be construed or is intended to confer upon the utilities and transportation commission any authority to exercise jurisdiction over locally regulated utilities.