State research record

Illinois pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in Illinois, 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 15, 2026 · certified under Section 224(c) · 7 authorities cited
The record

Illinois

IllinoisIL

Certified under Section 224(c)Record dated August 15, 2026
Cooperative poles
No. Cooperatives are excluded from public utility status by 220 ILCS 5/3-105(b)(3) and sit outside Section 224, so no Commission rate or access duty reaches a cooperative pole. Contract, and a circuit court
Municipal poles
No. Municipal systems are excluded from Illinois Commerce Commission jurisdiction by 220 ILCS 5/3-105(b)(1) and sit outside Section 224. Whether any Illinois rate ceiling or access duty reaches them was not established in this pass
Rate standard
A presumptive Illinois formula at 83 Ill. Adm. Code 315.20, which is presumptive rather than a ceiling and reaches cable television attachers only. No Illinois rate standard of any kind applies to a telecommunications attacher, to a cooperative pole or to a municipal pole
Where a dispute goes
It splits by attacher and by owner. The Illinois Commerce Commission for a cable television attacher on a Commission jurisdictional pole. The FCC for a telecommunications attacher on an investor owned electric pole, because the state certification does not reach telecommunications attachments to electric utility poles. No commission at all for a cooperative or municipal pole
Confidence
High confidence on certification and on the limit of that certification, on the cooperative and municipal exclusions, on the Part 315 cable formula and on the finding that Illinois has no wireline make ready timeline of any kind; Provisional on the municipal negatives proved by absence and on the practical forum characterisation. No Illinois limitation period or filing deadline was sourced and none is stated here

Authorities220 ILCS 5/3-105(b)(1)220 ILCS 5/3-105(b)(3)220 ILCS 5/7-10283 Ill. Adm. Code 315.2047 U.S.C. 224FCC DA 22-630FCC DA 19-640

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