State research record

South Carolina pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in South Carolina, 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 July 31, 2026 · not certified under Section 224(c) · 8 authorities cited
The record

South Carolina

South CarolinaSC

Not certified under Section 224(c)Record dated July 31, 2026
Cooperative poles
Yes, under the Broadband Accessibility Act, S.C. Code 58-9-3030, with PSC jurisdiction carried in by 33-49-150. Read the operative duty rather than the definitions: every duty in 58-9-3030 runs to an electric cooperative as defined at 58-9-3010(10), and the broader electric provider term at 58-9-3010(11), which sweeps in investor owned utilities and the state owned Public Service Authority, is never used in the access duty at all
Municipal poles
No for city electric systems, which sit outside both the statute and Section 224. The state owned Public Service Authority is a different case and not a second No. S.C. Code 58-31-230(F) puts a conditional parity duty on it: the duty switches on only if the Authority first determines, in its sole discretion, to provide access to some communications service provider, access remains subject to the Authority's own terms and conditions, denial is preserved for insufficient capacity, safety, reliability and generally applicable engineering principles, and leasing of excess fiber capacity is carved out entirely. There is no rate standard, no just and reasonable requirement, no formula and no timeline in it
Rate standard
State just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory standard with no codified formula and no cap. S.C. Code 58-9-3030 sets a standard and nothing more, and its only federal cross reference is procedural, adopting the make ready timelines at 47 C.F.R. 1.1411 as that rule stood on 2020-09-15
Where a dispute goes
South Carolina Public Service Commission for cooperatives, with an interim rate in 30 days and a final rate in 180 days, retroactive to the written request. For the state owned Public Service Authority the forum is the Administrative Law Court, which S.C. Code 58-31-230(G) gives authority and jurisdiction to enforce compliance with that section, not the Commission and not a court of general jurisdiction. Investor owned disputes go to the FCC
Confidence
High confidence on non-certification by statutory self-disclaimer, cooperative coverage, the PSC forum with its 30 and 180 day clocks and retroactivity, the Administrative Law Court forum for the Public Service Authority, the conditional character of the 58-31-230(F) parity duty, and the absence of any rate formula in 58-9-3030; Provisional on the general municipal conclusion, which rests on the absence of a covering statute plus the Section 224 municipal exemption rather than on a statute reaching city systems

AuthoritiesS.C. Code 58-9-3030S.C. Code 58-9-3010(10)S.C. Code 58-9-3010(11)S.C. Code 33-49-150S.C. Code 58-31-230(F)S.C. Code 58-31-230(G)S.C. Code 58-31-230(H)(2)47 C.F.R. 1.1411

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