The Commission is unwaveringly committed to ensuring that there is meaningful, nationwide access to broadband, which has become a necessity of modern life. Consumers depend on fixed and mobile broadband networks for work, healthcare services, education, and social activities. Through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,[1] as well as other federal and state programs,[2] more funding than ever is available to build the necessary infrastructure to bring much-needed broadband services to unserved and underserved areas in the United States. Key to these broadband projects are the utility poles that support the wires and the wireless equipment carrying broadband to American homes and businesses.
In December 2023, the Commission took steps to speed broadband deployment by making the pole attachment process faster, more transparent, and more cost effective.[3] Among those measures was establishment of the Rapid Broadband Assessment Team (RBAT)—an intra-agency group with expertise in the Commission’s pole attachment rules and orders under 47 U.S.C. § 224. The RBAT’s mandate is to “prioritize and expedite the resolution of pole attachment disputes that are alleged to impede or delay the deployment of broadband facilities and to provide coordinated review and assessment of such disputes.”[4] Specifically, the RBAT expedites the resolution of disputes by swiftly engaging key stakeholders, gathering relevant information, and distilling issues in dispute.
The RBAT provides guidance and advice to the parties on the most effective means of resolving their dispute, including RBAT-supervised mediation. The RBAT also has discretion to decide whether a complaint (or portion of a complaint) is suitable for inclusion on the Commission’s Accelerated Docket based on consideration of specified criteria.[5]
Parties seeking to request RBAT review and assessment of a pole attachment dispute that is impeding or delaying the deployment of a broadband facilities project should first contact the Chief of the Enforcement Bureau’s Market Disputes Resolution Division (MDRD) by phone (202.418.7330) and in writing (EBMDRD.Division@fcc.gov). The MDRD Chief will then direct the party to instructions for completing and submitting FCC Form 5653 (INSERT LINK).
[1] Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Pub. L. No. 117-58, 135 Stat. 429 (2021) (Infrastructure Act).
[2] These include the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), the Department of the Treasury’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program, and NTIA’s broadband equity, access, and deployment (BEAD) program.
[3]See Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment, WC Docket No. 17-84, Fourth Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 23-109 (rel. Dec. 15, 2023).
[4] 47 CFR § 1.1415(a).
[5]47 CFR § 1.1415(e). See 47 CFR § 1.736.