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DMDMIJ8 <br /> Iv,',,11M Position Statement <br /> Restore and Preserve Local Control <br /> of Pole Attachments <br /> • MMUA actively supports access to reliable <br /> broadband services for all Minnesotans, but <br /> strongly opposes the FCC's September 26, 2018 <br /> order regarding small-cell telecommunications <br /> antennae that preempts local control over rights-of- or 4 <br /> way and municipally owned utility poles. _���� <br /> • These FCC regulations ignore express language in _ m . "� <br /> federal law exempting municipal utility poles from , ,;4`, ` - ,� ,,r- — <br /> FCC regulations on pole attachments and fees. � ' .�� '- : <br /> • <br /> • Counter to FCC implications, municipal <br /> utilities do NOT pose a barrier to the expansion of <br /> broadband or otherforms oftelecommunication. / .r. <br /> — IFr „$ <br /> Q�� <br /> • Congress needs to pass legislation returning e , <br /> control over local rights-of-way and public '"" � <br /> infrastructure to the cities responsible for them. <br /> Background � .��, " `, <br /> In recognition of the local jurisdiction's 4" „l' OW <br /> m <br /> responsibility to protect the public interest in its <br /> public infrastructure assets, municipal utilities tor Tor* ' *i <br /> have historically been exempted from Federalot + ° <br /> Communications Commission (FCC)jurisdiction <br /> over utilities' rights-of-way (ROWs), pole ' <br /> attachments, and related fees. This exemption was <br /> codified in 1978 as Section 224 of the amended °- '' <br /> Communications Act of 1938. Congress again :‘ `4 <br /> affirmatively upheld local control during debate , ` ,. - .4 ; . 1 _ ., <br /> of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, expressly # ' <br /> finding that decisions about the use of ROWs Municipalities have zoning, land use,and technical <br /> and infrastructure are best left to the most local considerations(including the National Electric Safety Code) <br /> that justify local authority over the use of our infrastructure. <br /> governing body. <br /> Despite the clear benefits of, and congressional <br /> support for, maintaining this local accountability, On September 26, 2018, over the objection of <br /> in or around 2010, the FCC began recommending hundreds of comments submitted by public utilities <br /> to Congress that municipal utilities' exempt and their associations, including MMUA and the <br /> status should be amended or repealed. After American Public Power Association (APPA), the <br /> unsuccessfully pushing the telecommunications FCC issued a Declaratory Ruling and Third Report <br /> industry's stone uphill for nearly a decade, the FCC and Order subjecting municipal utility poles and <br /> decided to act on its own. municipal rights-of-way to FCC jurisdiction for <br /> 2019 Federal Position Statements/6 <br /> 132 <br />