HB 979

Abstract

Utility easements; pole attachments. Declares that aprescriptive easement, including the right to use such easement for bothelectric and communications services, exists in an area unserved by broadbandwhen an electric cooperative has a utility map showing the placement, datingback not fewer than 20 years, of facilities owned, maintained, or controlled bythe electric cooperative within an easement, and there is no documentation inthose records of the electric cooperative or in the public record showing agrant of an inconsistent express easement by the landowner to the cooperativewithin the easement area. The measure entitles a third-party nongovernmentalbroadband service provider to use such a prescriptive easement at no charge bythe electric cooperative for apportionment and lease of the real estate rightsof the cooperative. The measure also provides that when a cooperative hasacquired a prescriptive easement in an area unserved by broadband pursuant towhich it has the right to install, maintain, and use poles and wires orunderground conduits for a communications purpose, it shall be the publicpolicy of the Commonwealth to encourage broadband expansion and to interpretsuch easement to also include the right of a nongovernmental broadband serviceprovider to install, maintain, operate, repair, and replace broadband lines,systems, and facilities necessary for the provision and extension of broadbandand other communications services within such easement. The measure gives theState Corporation Commission exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute as to theright of an electric cooperative or nongovernmental broadband service providerto use such a prescriptive easement.