State research record

Hawaii pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in Hawaii, 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 September 17, 2026 · not certified under Section 224(c) · 10 authorities cited
The record

Hawaii

HawaiiHI

Not certified under Section 224(c)Record dated September 17, 2026
Cooperative poles
Conditional, and it runs the other way from most states. Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is a public utility under HRS 269-1, whose exclusion list carries no cooperative limb, and the Commission regulates its rates, so the cooperative exemption that takes coop poles outside the state regime elsewhere does not hold here. That inclusion is defeasible: HRS 269-31(b) lets the Commission waive or exempt an electric cooperative from any requirement of the chapter or any rule, and HAR 6-80 Subchapter 7 is a rule. Whether any such waiver has been granted was not established.
Municipal poles
Not applicable. Hawaii has no municipal electric utility, no county owned electric utility and no public power district, and is the only state with none.
Rate standard
The FCC cable and telecommunications formulas at 47 CFR 1.1406 apply unqualified because Hawaii filed no certification. HAR 6-80-76 adds a mandatory state apportionment of unusable space at two thirds of the cost of providing it, allocated equally among all attaching entities, but it reaches an attachment by a telecommunications carrier only: HRS 269-1 excludes cable service from telecommunications service, so the state rule does not reach a cable operator. It is an apportionment method and not a rate, a ceiling or a figure, and Hawaii has adopted no rate figure.
Where a dispute goes
The FCC under Part 1 Subpart J on a Section 224 pole, because Hawaii filed no certification. An access complaint is nevertheless exposed to dismissal under 47 CFR 1.1405(a) on proof that the State regulates access matters, and HAR 6-80 Subchapter 7 with HRS 269-34(4) is the ground on which that would be argued. On a Kauai Island Utility Cooperative pole there is no federal forum at all, because 47 U.S.C. 224(a)(1) excludes a cooperatively organized owner: the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission is the only forum, by sworn complaint under HRS 269-7(c) or informal complaint under HAR 16-601-66.
Confidence
High confidence on non-certification, on the statutory position that Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is a public utility, and on the absence of municipal utilities; Good confidence on Commission practice toward that cooperative and on the municipal finding's source; Provisional on which forum ultimately hears an access complaint and on whether any HRS 269-31(b) waiver has been granted

AuthoritiesHRS 269-1HRS 269-7(c)HRS 269-31(b)HRS 269-34(4)HAR 6-80-76HAR 16-601-6647 U.S.C. 224(a)(1)47 CFR 1.140547 CFR 1.1406FCC DA 22-630

Read the chip above as one fact and no more: whether Hawaii 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

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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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