Telcos Press FCC to Scrap Part 32 Accounting Rules, Shift to GAAP; NCTA Pushes Back

a proposed transition for calculating pole-attachment rates under GAAP, said a USTelecom filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-130 on meetings with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael O'Rielly. The FCC is considering streamlining and eliminating its Part 32 rules at its Feb. 23 meeting (see 1702020051). The telco "proposal seeks to provide a simple and transparent method for addressing any delta between the results derived under the two methodologies and ensuring a long 12-year transition [that] is fair to both attachers and the carriers and meets the requirements of the [Communications] Act," the filing said. But NCTA said a GAAP-based approach wouldn't track specific pole investment and expenses as required under Part 32, leading to "unwarranted, harmful increases in pole attachment rates." The harms can't be addressed solely through a lengthy transition and instead should be combined with a freeze on ILEC pole-attachment rates, said an NCTA filing on a meeting with the O'Rielly aide to discuss the group's opposition to the telco proposal (see 1702090042). The USTelecom filing said the telco proposal, unlike a rate freeze, would incorporate changes annually, which would be "more consistent with the Act," while neutralizing the impact of the transition from Part 32 to GAAP-based inputs. Pole-attachment rates would continue to vary under GAAP and in many cases are expected to be lower than those under Part 32, the filing said. "We also described how impractical it would be to maintain Part 32 accounts just for pole attachment rate calculations," the telcos said.