CS/CS/HB 1567 Summary

• Grants the Florida Public Service Commission authority to regulate and enforce rates, charges, terms, and conditions for pole attachments to ensure they are just and reasonable, including attachments to streetlight fixtures and poles owned by communications services providers.

• Requires the commission to establish cost-based rates for pole attachments and apply Federal Communications Commission decisions unless a party proves by competent evidence that an alternative cost-of-service-based rate is appropriate and in the public interest.

• Authorizes pole owners to deny nondiscriminatory access to poles based on insufficient capacity or for reasons of safety, reliability, and engineering purposes, with evaluations considering commission-approved construction and reliability standards.

• Creates new section 366.97 requiring pole owners to provide 180 calendar days' advance notice of major hardening projects and allowing attaching entities 180 days to remove attachments from redundant poles; pole owners may transfer or remove noncompliant attachments at the entity's expense.

• Requires the commission to adopt procedural rules by January 1, 2022, for pole attachment rates and by April 1, 2022, for safety, vegetation management, repair, replacement, maintenance, and storm restoration requirements for communications services provider poles.