State research record

New Mexico pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in New Mexico, 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 20, 2026 · not certified under Section 224(c) · 8 authorities cited
The record

New Mexico

New MexicoNM

Not certified under Section 224(c)Record dated August 20, 2026
Cooperative poles
Distribution cooperatives are subject to New Mexico Public Regulation Commission jurisdiction, written into the Public Utility Act by name with no opt out. Generation and transmission cooperatives are carved out
Municipal poles
Municipal systems are not Commission rate regulated and sit outside Section 224. Contract only
Rate standard
There is no New Mexico pole attachment rate standard of any kind: no formula, no ceiling, no presumptive rate, no filed tariff duty and no adoption of the FCC formula by reference. A distribution cooperative is held only to the general standard that a charge not be unfair, unreasonable, unjust or inadequate
Where a dispute goes
The FCC for investor owned electric and incumbent telephone poles. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission for a distribution cooperative, by complaint under NMSA 1978, Section 62-10-1, and the Commission may proceed only where it finds probable cause. District court on the contract for a generation and transmission cooperative and for a municipal or H class county system. Tribal jurisdiction is unresolved
Confidence
High confidence on non certification proved by reading the list in full, on cooperative jurisdiction as statutory text, on the municipal position and on the total absence of any state rate standard; Provisional on how that jurisdiction would apply to a pole attachment, which no located New Mexico statute, rule or order has yet done in either direction. No New Mexico limitation period, make ready timeline or decision clock exists and none is stated here

AuthoritiesNMSA 1978, Section 62-3-3(D)NMSA 1978, Section 62-6-4(A)NMSA 1978, Section 62-10-11.2.2.9 NMAC47 U.S.C. 224(c)47 U.S.C. 224(a)(1)FCC DA 22-630FCC DA 26-579

Read the chip above as one fact and no more: whether New Mexico 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.

Back to the state research ledger · 45 jurisdictions on file

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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