State research record

Arkansas pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in Arkansas, what rate standard applies, where a dispute actually goes and whether cooperative and municipal poles are covered. This is the record we work from, published so you can read it yourself.

Record dated August 26, 2026 · certified under Section 224(c) · 9 authorities cited
The record

Arkansas

ArkansasAR

Certified under Section 224(c)Record dated August 26, 2026
Cooperative poles
Yes, by express statutory words, and this is the headline Arkansas finding. Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1001(2)(A) writes an electric cooperative into the definition of public utility for the pole attachment subchapter, so cooperative poles sit inside the same rules, the same formula and the same forum as investor owned poles. It is unconditional: no broadband trigger, no BEAD trigger and no per cooperative intake fact
Municipal poles
No, excluded by name. Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1001(2)(B) provides that public utility does not mean a municipal electric utility, and municipal poles sit outside 47 U.S.C. 224 as well, because that section excludes a person owned by any State. Contract and ordinance only. Ark. Code Ann. 14-54-701(a)(3) permits but does not require a municipality to allow attachments
Rate standard
A distinct Arkansas formula, neither FCC formula, applied as a ceiling on a default only. Under Appendix A to the Commission's Pole Attachment Rules the maximum per pole rate is the space factor times the net cost of a bare pole times the carrying charge rate, and the space factor allocates occupied space plus two thirds of unusable space divided by the number of attachers including the owner. The return element of the carrying charge rate is fixed at 8.00 percent by rule rather than tracking the owner's authorized return. Every presumption is rebuttable by the attaching entity, and the number of attachers is the largest recurring lever. PAR 1.05 preserves any lawful negotiated rate, which is the main brake
Where a dispute goes
The Arkansas Public Service Commission for investor owned electric, investor owned telephone and electric cooperative poles alike, not the FCC, after a mandatory good faith informal resolution attempt that carries no fixed day count. Each party must supply publicly available data within thirty days of the other's request. Municipal poles go to court or to the city's own process, and federal owners have no forum at all. The Commission's own 180 day resolution clock, extendable to 360 days for good cause, is a decision deadline and is not an attacher filing deadline
Confidence
High confidence on certification, on Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1001 to 23-4-1004 read directly, and on the entire Pole Attachment Rules including Appendix A read in full; Good confidence on the Commission's own electric utilities page; Provisional on Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1005 and 23-4-1006, on the constitutional and case law legs of the municipal exclusion check, on the BEAD figures, on the utility counts and on the whole federal entity analysis. No Arkansas attacher limitation period exists anywhere and none is stated here

AuthoritiesArk. Code Ann. 23-4-1001Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1002Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1003Ark. Code Ann. 23-4-1004Ark. Code Ann. 14-54-701126.03.17 Ark. Code R. 00147 CFR 1.1405(f)FCC DA 22-630FCC DA 26-579

Read the chip above as one fact and no more: whether Arkansas has certified under Section 224(c) that it regulates pole attachments itself. It does not settle your pole. Cooperative and municipal poles sit outside federal jurisdiction whether or not a state has certified, so the two owner class lines are the ones that answer the question for the invoice in front of you.

This record is worked from the statute and the order that made it rather than from a summary of one. The confidence line is tied to its source: where a conclusion rests on weaker ground the record says so, because a hedge you can see is what makes the confident answers worth believing. The method is set out in how PoleProof researches and verifies, and how a cleared rule enters an audit is on the methodology page.

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Scope

How to use this, and how to check it

Every conclusion above names the authority it rests on, so you can go read that authority and decide whether you agree. That is the point of publishing the record rather than asserting the result.

This is general information about the rules and it is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for your own counsel on a specific dispute. PoleProof is not a law firm. PoleProof performs financial and cost review of what you have been billed rather than engineering evaluation of what the pole owner determined was necessary. Rules change, and this record carries the date it was worked so you can see how current it is.

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