State research record

Maryland pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in Maryland, 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 24, 2026 · not certified under Section 224(c) · 10 authorities cited
The record

Maryland

MarylandMD

Not certified under Section 224(c)Record dated August 24, 2026
Cooperative poles
Yes, as owners, and this inverts the usual pattern. Cooperatives are electric companies under Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 1-101(i)(1) and therefore public service companies whose retail rates the Public Service Commission sets. Maryland has no pole attachment rule, so that jurisdiction has never been pointed at a pole attachment charge
Municipal poles
Yes, as owners, on the same footing as cooperatives. The Commission decides municipal electric base rate cases to final order. The same caveat applies: Maryland has no pole attachment rule
Rate standard
No Maryland rate standard exists for a pole attachment. On investor owned electric and incumbent telephone poles the FCC cable and telecommunications formulas apply as ceilings, because Maryland has not certified. On cooperative and municipal poles the attachment agreement governs. Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 4-201 ties the just and reasonable duty to regulated services and no Maryland order applies it to an attachment
Where a dispute goes
Splits in two, and completely. Investor owned electric and Verizon Maryland go to the FCC. Cooperative and municipal poles go to the Maryland Public Service Commission by written complaint under Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 3-102(a)(1), which any person may file but which requires naming a violated provision rather than calling a charge unreasonable, and which is untested on attachments. Maryland sets no make ready, survey, transfer, red tag or cost causation timeline of any kind
Confidence
High confidence on non certification proved three ways, on the Public Utilities Article definitions and on sections 2-113, 3-102, 4-201, 4-202 and 7-502, on the Commission rate case dockets for both cooperatives and municipals, on Order No. 91601 and the 2016 Staff report read in full, and on the COMAR chapter indexes; Provisional on the BEAD figures, the utility counts, the federal entity negative and the appellate negatives. Whether a pole attachment charge falls inside the Commission's jurisdiction at all is the central Maryland open question, and no Maryland rate figure is stated here

AuthoritiesMd. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 1-101Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 2-113Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 3-102Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 4-201Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 4-202Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. 7-502COMAR 20.07.01.04Maryland PSC Order No. 91601, Administrative Docket PC 38FCC DA 22-630FCC DA 26-579

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