State research record

South Dakota pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in South Dakota, 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 October 7, 2026 · not certified under Section 224(c) · 9 authorities cited
The record

South Dakota

South DakotaSD

Not certified under Section 224(c)Record dated October 7, 2026
Cooperative poles
Split by chapter, which is the point. Electric cooperatives are out: SDCL 49-34A-1(12) removes rural electric cooperatives from the rate, reasonableness, nondiscrimination and rulemaking sections. Telephone cooperatives, on the text, are in, because SDCL 49-31-5.1 omits them, which leaves them under SDCL 49-31-15, SDCL 49-31-18 and chapter 49-13. Untested on poles
Municipal poles
No for municipal electric systems and consumers power districts, under the same exclusion, and SDCL 9-35-1 is a street and own rate power rather than an attachment regime. Municipal telephone systems, on the text, are in, by the same reasoning as telephone cooperatives
Rate standard
No state formula and no state rule. The FCC formulas apply on an investor owned electric or incumbent telephone pole. On a telephone pole inside the state regime, SDCL 49-31-18 requires reasonable compensation without discrimination, with no formula. Cooperative, municipal electric and federal power poles are contract
Where a dispute goes
The FCC Enforcement Bureau on a pole Section 224 reaches. On a telephone pole, either a Public Utilities Commission access application under SDCL 49-31-15 or a complaint under SDCL 49-13-1, but not both, SDCL 49-13-1.1 requiring an election. Court on a contract pole. A highway permit application can also put cost apportionment before a board of county commissioners under SDCL 31-26-15, which is a named body with a hearing in a state where the attacher otherwise has none
Confidence
High confidence on every operative text and on the two validated absence sweeps; Provisional on the pole owner inventory, the state constitutional question, case law other than McKellips, and BEAD figures. South Dakota states no limitation period for a pole claim, because it has no pole regime to carry one

AuthoritiesSDCL 49-34A-1(12)SDCL 49-31-5.1SDCL 49-31-15SDCL 49-31-18SDCL 49-13-1SDCL 49-13-1.1SDCL 31-26-15SDCL 9-35-1FCC DA 22-630

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