Sen. Brandon Beach Releases Statement on Pole Attachment Rates

ATLANTA (December 16, 2020) | Today, Sen. Brandon Beach (R – Alpharetta) released the following statement following yesterday’s decision by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) regarding pole attachment rates and the deployment of broadband:

“The decision by the PSC to raise pole attachment rates by 35% defies the intent of House Bill 244, which was passed to facilitate the rapid deployment of fiber and broadband service across our State. This decision will not move the needle one iota in connecting Georgians to reliable and much needed high speed broadband service.

This decision will make Georgia less competitive and less attractive to the private capital required to expand broadband and really makes no sense.

This is a case of putting politics above the people. That is obvious when the PSC ignored their own experts who recommended they adopt lower pole attachment rates across the state and terms and conditions that would have made it easier to deploy broadband. We look forward to working with our colleagues to fix this in January so we can speed up the deployment of broadband to Georgians that need it ASAP.”

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For Immediate Release:

Dec. 16, 2020

Andrew Allison, Director

Andrew.Allison@senate.ga.gov

404.653.5242