State research record

Wisconsin pole attachment rules, in writing and dated.

Who regulates the pole you are attaching to in Wisconsin, 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 16, 2026 · not certified under Section 224(c) · 6 authorities cited
The record

Wisconsin

WisconsinWI

Not certified under Section 224(c)Record dated September 16, 2026
Cooperative poles
Conditional, and the two questions come apart. A cooperative furnishing to its members only is excluded from the defined term public utility at Wis. Stat. 196.01(5)(b)1, so the Commission has no general rate jurisdiction over it. The Wisconsin pole duty does not run to public utilities as owners, it runs to a person who owns transmission equipment and property, so a cooperative can owe the duty while sitting outside the rate jurisdiction.
Municipal poles
Yes. A town, village or city that owns or operates an electric plant is a public utility by the express words of Wis. Stat. 196.01(5)(a), so a municipal electric utility is fully Commission jurisdictional and separately owes the pole duty.
Rate standard
A state reasonableness standard under Wis. Stat. 196.04(1)(b)1, with the FCC cable and telecommunications formulas applying of their own force because Wisconsin has filed no certification.
Where a dispute goes
The FCC under 47 CFR Part 1 Subpart J, and concurrently the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin under Wis. Stat. 196.04(2), which lets any public utility, video service provider, telecommunications provider or other interested person apply to the commission where there is a failure to agree on the use of transmission equipment and property or on the compensation for it.
Confidence
High confidence on non-certification, the municipal duty, the cooperative treatment and the concurrent forum

AuthoritiesWis. Stat. 196.01(5)(a)Wis. Stat. 196.01(5)(b)1Wis. Stat. 196.04(1)(b)1Wis. Stat. 196.04(2)47 U.S.C. 224(d)FCC DA 22-630

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