‘Last time we hear of this': Panel strikes utility pole compromise to boost Indiana broadband access

Yahoo

09-04-2025

The Indiana Energy Association's Matt Long (right) reviews materials while Rep. Ed Soliday (center) introduces his amendment to a utility pole attachment measure on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Suit-clad lobbyists on Tuesday offered careful praise for a compromise intended to resolve a long-running fight over the utility pole attachment required to bring high-speed internet to rural Hoosiers and others. Disagreements between electricity and telecommunications providers could muddle more than a billion dollars of government broadband incentives.
'For years, … the most difficult barrier to rural broadband deployment in Indiana has been the math,' said Joni Hart, of Comcast Indiana.
It's often prohibitively expensive to install broadband infrastructure for few customers situated far apart. But Indiana has poured money into access improvements in recent years — and was allocated a whopping $870 million through the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to make more progress.
'Number-one obstructionist': Electricity co-ops lambasted for slow broadband rollout
Now that the money is taken care of, new obstacles have emerged.
'With this funding committed, our industry and policy makers have more at stake in tackling deployment barriers like permitting and pole attachment issues in order to make sure we get this infrastructure deployed,' Hart added. She said those snags have forced Comcast Indiana to request several extensions from the Indiana Broadband Office for various broadband access projects.
An amendment accepted by consent Tuesday represents 'a constructive step forward,' said Daniel Miller, president of Indiana's Broadband and Technology Association.
The package of changes 'reflects a thoughtful effort to balance competing interests while addressing the practical realities of broadband deployment,' Miller continued. 'It offers a workable framework that promotes continued investment, innovation and expansion, especially in the areas (of Indiana) that need it most.'
The Indiana Energy Association, which represents the state's 'big five' electric utilities and several natural gas utilities, also said the amended legislation 'strikes a balance.'
The edits recast proposed alterations weighed last week, when Indiana's electric cooperatives were dealt a public tongue-lashing over delays in broadband delivery.
'Good Lord willing, this will be the last time we hear of this issue from now until the Second Coming,' said House Utilities Committee leader Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.
After Soliday's overhaul, Senate Bill 502 would give telecommunications providers — the attaching entities — and electric utilities that own 300-plus utility poles a 60-day deadline to meet after a government broadband grant contract is executed.
And they'd have four months to reach a project management agreement after the National Telecommunications Information Administration approves the office's BEAD proposal.
The legislation now sets detailed deadlines for cooperation if they can't concur. It would also allow the office to set a 'rapid response mediation process' when disputes arise — pulling back from hefty fines considered last week. The office would additionally have to publish broadband grant contracts online shortly after they're executed.
Indiana Chief Broadband Office Stephen Cox said his office is working on the first round of the complex application process and has wrapped up a series of listening sessions.
'Pole attachments are necessary, in most projects, to bring them to completion,' Cox told the committee. 'Our office sees this bill as providing a tool to help expedite pole attachment requests … to facilitate project completion.'
Comcast Indiana's Hart thanked the committee for cutting the timeline for preparatory work, but said that remained the company's 'primary concern.'
'We realize this isn't Burger King, and we can't always 'have it our way,'' she quipped, 'but hopefully that is something that we can work on in the future.'
Soliday, however, said such changes 'won't be in the room,' under his leadership.
'We have worked really hard on this (amendment); it was painful,' he said. 'And so, I think we're in a good place where everyone is equally unhappy. So, spread the joy.'
Senate Bill 502 heads to the House floor after the committee's unanimous, 15-0 vote.
So does an edited small modular nuclear reactor 'pilot' program, on a party-line vote.
The committee lifted a two-project cap within Senate Bill 423 so that any interested developers could participate and bring nuclear to Indiana. The legislation would now block program participants from charging ratepayers for no-cost contributions by third parties.
'We're sort of de-piloting it, but I can change the U.S. Constitution easier than I can change the title of this bill,' Soliday said at least week's hearing. '… We are taking it out of the pilot realm.'
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