By: Darby H.B. No. 3445
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the access by a certificated telecommunications
provider to the rights-of-way and pole charges of an electric
cooperative.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sec. 54.204, Utilities Code, is amended to read
as follows:
SUBCHAPTER E. MUNICIPALITIES AND ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES
Sec. 54.204. DISCRIMINATION BY A MUNICIPALITY OR AN
ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE PROHIBITED. (a) Notwithstanding Section
14.008 and Section 41.004, a municipality or a municipally owned
utility or an electric cooperative may not discriminate against a
certificated telecommunications provider regarding:
(1) the authorization or placement of a facility in a
public right-of-way or an electric cooperative right-of-way;
(2) access to a building; or
(3) a municipal utility or an electric cooperative
pole attachment rate or term.
(b) In granting consent, a franchise, or a permit for the
use of a public street, alley, or right-of-way within its municipal
boundaries, a municipality or municipally owned utility may not
discriminate in favor of or against a certificated
telecommunications provider regarding:
(1) municipal utility pole attachment or underground
conduit rates or terms; or
(2) the authorization, placement, replacement, or
removal of a facility in a public right-of-way and the reasonable
compensation for the authorization, placement, replacement, or
removal regardless of whether the compensation is in the form of:
(A) money;
(B) services;
(C) use of facilities; or
(D) another kind of consideration.
(c) A municipality or a municipally owned utility or an
electric cooperative may not charge any entity, regardless of the
nature of the services provided by that entity, a pole attachment
rate or underground conduit rate that exceeds:
(1) the existing rate if the attaching entity and the
pole owner already have a contract;
(2) a mutually agreed rate, if the attaching entity
and the pole owner agree to a new rate;
(3) the fee the municipality or municipally owned
utility or the electric cooperative would be permitted to charge
under rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission under
47 U.S.C. Section 224(e) if the municipality's or municipally owned
utility's or the electric cooperative's rates were regulated under
federal law and the rules of the Federal Communications Commission,
or
(4) a rate determined by the commission in a contested
case under Chapter 2001, Government Code.
(d) In addition, not later than September 1, 2006, a
municipality or municipally owned utility shall charge a single,
uniform pole attachment or underground conduit rate to all entities
that are not affiliated with the municipality or municipally owned
utility regardless of the services carried over the networks
attached to the poles or underground conduit.
(e) [(d)] Notwithstanding any other law, the commission has
the jurisdiction necessary to enforce this section.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.