State research record

Pennsylvania pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in Pennsylvania, 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 10, 2026 · certified under Section 224(c) · 10 authorities cited
The record

Pennsylvania

PennsylvaniaPA

Certified under Section 224(c)Record dated September 10, 2026
Cooperative poles
No. Cooperative poles sit outside every Pennsylvania regime on two independent statutory routes: 15 Pa.C.S. 7334 exempts electric cooperative corporations except as to certified territory, and 52 Pa. Code 77.2(a) and 77.3(a) carry the federal exclusions forward. There is no state rate remedy and no state make ready remedy on a cooperative pole.
Municipal poles
No. The thirty five borough electric systems are excluded from 52 Pa. Code Chapter 77, because 77.2(a) and 77.3(a) exclude any person expressly exempted by 47 U.S.C. 224(a)(1) and 47 CFR 1.1402(a), and 1.1402(a) excludes any person owned by any State.
Rate standard
The FCC cable and telecommunications rate formulas, adopted wholesale by 52 Pa. Code 77.4(a) to the full extent provided for in 47 U.S.C. 224 and Part 1 Subpart J, with the Public Utility Code just and reasonable standard at 66 Pa.C.S. 1301(a) running alongside it. Since 2026-01-08 the presumptive maximum rate of 47 CFR 1.1406 is evidence of unreasonableness rather than a presumption: FirstEnergy holds the Commission has no statutory authority to enact a presumptive maximum, so under 66 Pa.C.S. 332(a) the challenger bears the burden of showing an existing rate is unjust.
Where a dispute goes
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, not the FCC, by formal complaint under 52 Pa. Code 77.5 using the mediation and adjudicative procedures of 52 Pa. Code Chapters 1, 3 and 5. Pennsylvania procedure governs and the federal rules control only where it is silent, and a corporate complainant must be represented.
Confidence
High confidence on certification, the rate adoption and the 2026 holding that limits it, the cooperative exclusion and the municipal exclusion; Provisional on the procedural detail of the complaint forum

Authorities52 Pa. Code 77.152 Pa. Code 77.4(a)52 Pa. Code 77.515 Pa.C.S. 733466 Pa.C.S. 1301(a)47 CFR 1.1402(a)47 CFR 1.1406DA 20-302DA 22-630FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Nos. 42 and 43 MAP 2024 (Pa. 2026)

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