IowaIA
- Cooperative poles
- Yes on safety and attachment procedure, no on rates. Iowa Code 476.1A(1)(b) keeps electric cooperatives inside the Iowa Utilities Commission's safety standards and engineering standards jurisdiction notwithstanding their exemption from the rest of the chapter, and the state pole attachment rule at 199 IAC 25.4(2) is keyed to that safety jurisdiction rather than to rate regulated status, so a cooperative pole is inside the state rule. Iowa asserts no pole attachment rate jurisdiction over any owner, and 47 U.S.C. 224(a)(1) puts a cooperative outside the federal definition of utility, so no rate ceiling and no rate forum reaches a cooperative pole from any source
- Municipal poles
- Same answer as cooperatives, on a differently worded statute. Iowa Code 476.1B(1)(b) keeps municipally owned utilities inside the commission's safety standards jurisdiction, and 199 IAC 25.4(2) reaches them because it is keyed to safety jurisdiction. No Iowa rate jurisdiction applies, and 47 U.S.C. 224(a)(1) puts a State owned pole outside the federal definition of utility. Note the drafting difference, which is not cosmetic: 476.1A(1)(b) reads safety standards and engineering standards while 476.1B(1)(b) reads safety standards alone; whether a municipal utility is therefore outside the engineering standards limb is an open question that does not change the pole attachment answer. Iowa Code 8C.7, titled Utility poles, is not a pole attachment provision for a wireline builder and must not be cited as one: its defined terms confine it to wireless equipment and to zoning authorities, and they expressly exclude the utilities commission and municipally owned utilities
- Rate standard
- There is no Iowa rate standard of any kind for a pole attachment. No formula, no ceiling, no presumptive rate, no tariff requirement, no reasonableness standard and no filing requirement appears anywhere in 199 IAC Chapter 25, reported as a full read of all six rules rather than as a search, and the adopting agency said in its own Adopted and Filed statement that the amendments made no reference to rates, terms, or conditions in a pole attachment agreement. On an investor owned electric or telephone pole the federal cable and telecom formulas under 47 U.S.C. 224 and 47 CFR Part 1 Subpart J therefore apply unqualified, because Iowa never certified. On a cooperative or municipal pole the rate is whatever the agreement says, and no Iowa source supplies a rate remedy. Iowa also has no make ready clock, no survey, application or estimate clock, and no self help
- Where a dispute goes
- The forum depends on the subject rather than on the owner. Rate and access disputes on an investor owned pole go to the FCC, because Iowa never certified and the rebuttable presumption at 47 CFR 1.1405(b) that the state is not regulating is undisturbed; on a cooperative or municipal pole there is no rate forum at all. Safety, violation, correction and access procedure disputes go to the Iowa Utilities Commission on any Iowa pole, under 199 IAC 25.4(2)(g) and the complaint procedures in 199 Chapter 6, and the commission can levy civil penalties under Iowa Code 476.51 against any owner class including cooperatives and municipals. Good faith negotiation is mandatory first under 199 IAC 25.4(2)(f), and Iowa Code 476.3(1) then requires a written complaint to be forwarded to the utility, which must satisfy or answer it before any formal proceeding. No limitation period for a pole attachment or overcharge complaint appears in 199 IAC Chapter 25 or Iowa Code 476.3, and the federal period was not established in this record, so no deadline figure is given here. One trap: the state rule's access duty at 199 IAC 25.4(2)(c)(1) is expressly derivative, applying only to the extent required by federal or state law, and the rulemaking record states the qualifier was added so the rule would create no obligation not already found in Iowa law. A broadband only builder, a city or county building broadband and a tribal attacher are all pole occupants entitled to the procedure, to a detailed written explanation of any denial and to a commission complaint, and none of them gains a right of access on a cooperative or municipal pole. Say both halves or say neither
- Confidence
- High confidence on non certification, on the subject matter split, on the scope chain that puts every cooperative and municipal pole inside the state safety and procedure rule, on the complete absence of any Iowa rate standard, on the forum and the mandatory pre filing step, on the civil penalty reach, on the derivative access duty and on the inclusive but non substantive definition of pole occupant. Provisional on every owner count, on the identification of individual pole owning carriers, on the federal entity and tribal findings and on every BEAD figure. The federal limitation period was not established in this record, the constitutional limb of the exemption check is recorded as NOT RUN, and the reading of Iowa Code 476.1A subsection 3 is the record's own construction confirmed by no authority and may not drive a client facing finding
Authorities47 U.S.C. 224(c)47 U.S.C. 224(a)(1)47 CFR 1.1405(b)FCC DA 22-630199 IAC Chapter 25199 IAC 25.1(3)199 IAC 25.4(2)(a)199 IAC 25.4(2)(c)(1)199 IAC 25.4(2)(f)199 IAC 25.4(2)(g)ARC 1259CIowa Code 476.1A(1)(b)Iowa Code 476.1B(1)(b)Iowa Code 476.3Iowa Code 476.51Iowa Code 8C.2Iowa Code 8C.7