Local coalition defends rights-of-way management, compensation practices.

• Author: Berger, Barrie Tabin
• Position: Federal Focus

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a notice of inquiry (NOI) on April 7, 2011, titled "Expanding the Reach and Reducing the Cost of Broadband Deployment by Improving Policies Regarding Public Rights of Way and Wireless Facilities Siting." (1) The purpose of the NOI was to obtain detailed information regarding local governments' rights-of-way (2) management and compensation practices and policies. The FCC maintains that the NOI is intended to help the agency with its understanding of these practices and how they may be related to facilitating or obstructing broadband deployment around the country. The commission seeks to compile a detailed record of broadband deployment issues to give it a factual basis for determining the nature and extent of any problems.

COALITION COMMENTS

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), along with a broader coalition of national associations representing local governments, (3) submitted comments in response to the NOI. Regulatory action by the FCC that severely limits or otherwise changes the way local governments are permitted to manage and collect compensation for use of the public rights of way would have far-reaching implications for jurisdictions around the country, such as reducing local government revenue used to enhance public interest objectives (e.g., ensuring the public safety, maintaining roadways, and making other infrastructure investments).

The GFOA and its local government partners have long followed FCC initiatives to preempt or limit local government rights-of-way authority. For nearly two decades, the associations representing local governments, together with their legal counsel, (4) have been asked to demonstrate in numerous FCC filings that local governments successfully employ practices that allow a range of competing industries to use the public rights of way for the benefit of the community. In 2011, these benefits include practices to encourage rapid broadband deployment and adoption.

The FCC's recent NOI again asks local governments to defend their practices regarding rights of way, and the local government coalition submitted comments challenging the FCC's implication that local rights-of-way management and compensation practices are thwarting broadband deployment in communities around the country (as the NOI title affirms). These comments stress the important role local rights-of-way management plays in protecting the safety and health of the public, and...