THE ELECTRFIER
October 2021

Manager's Report

Footing the bill for broadband shouldn't fall to French Broad EMC
Members. Rural North Carolina needs better access to broadband internet;
all of us who live here understand that deeply. The large cable
companies never considered serving any of our members outside of Mars
Hill or Marshall. French Broad EMC recognized that high speed broadband
was never going to be available to most of our customers in our Marshall District so our board of directors challenged our staff to find a solution.

We began applying for grants and other funding opportunities to get high
speed service into our most rural areas. In the past four years, we have connected over 5,000 members to our fiber internet service and our plan
is to continue to expand our service until every member has access.
Without FBEMC, none of these customers would have high speed internet
today regardless of what the major cable companies claim.

Recently, we have seen commercials and media from cable companies
blaming the lack of rural broadband on electric utilities, including us,
a rural, not-for-profit electric cooperative. Their claim is that
electric cooperatives are blocking cable companies from using utility
poles for broadband.

But what are those commercials not saying? That cable companies want
electric cooperatives and members to foot the bill for broadband
deployment.

https://www.frenchbroademc.com/ElectrifierOctober2021.pdf (Page 2)


***** Moderator's Note *****

The "old" way of doing things was that the "power" company owned about
half of the poles, and the "phone" company most of the other half,
with a few provided by private companies or individuals.

The cable anf Internet providers apparently feel that they should
enjoy attachment rights to existing poles, without sharing the costs
of installing and maintaining them, at least in this part of the
Tarheel State. I invite comments about this issue, especially from
those whom have negotated pole cost-sharing arrangements between
Internet access providers and traditional phone or power companies.

Bill Horne
Moderator

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On 10/30/2021 12:10 PM, Bill Horne wrote:

THE ELECTRFIER
October 2021 ...
Recently, we have seen commercials and media from cable companies
blaming the lack of rural broadband on electric utilities, including
us, a rural, not-for-profit electric cooperative. Their claim is that electric cooperatives are blocking cable companies from using utility
poles for broadband.

But what are those commercials not saying? That cable companies want
electric cooperatives and members to foot the bill for broadband
deployment.

https://www.frenchbroademc.com/ElectrifierOctober2021.pdf (Page 2)

***** Moderator's Note *****

The "old" way of doing things was that the "power" company owned about
half of the poles, and the "phone" company most of the other half,
with a few provided by private companies or individuals.

The cable anf Internet providers apparently feel that they should
enjoy attachment rights to existing poles, without sharing the costs
of installing and maintaining them, at least in this part of the
Tarheel State. I invite comments about this issue, especially from
those whom have negotated pole cost-sharing arrangements between
Internet access providers and traditional phone or power companies.

The way the rules on this work is that an investor-owned utility must
charge pole attachers a regulated rate set according to a cost-sharing
formula. This applies to telcos and electric companies. However, an
electric cooperative is not subject to those limits, so they can
charge whatever the hell they want. So they can charge cable attachers
five times the rate that the IOU next door charges. ILECs usually have
legacy deals, but new fiber operators are stuck. Not all act that way
but they can. Many coops are pulling their own fiber, and also don't
want competition.

--
Fred R. Goldstein k1io fred "at" ionary.com
+1 617 795 2701

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