Spectrum accuses AEP Ohio of hindering broadband development in Appalachia

Cable television and internet company Spectrum is accusing AEP Ohio of frustrating efforts to extend broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of the state.

Spectrum on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, asking regulators to order AEP Ohio to speed up the process of approving applications from Spectrum that would give the company access to AEP poles for Spectrum wires.

"We’re trying to deliver broadband connections to Ohio residents and there’s a significant impediment to do that," said Noel Dempsey, senior vice president of field operations for Spectrum. "Whether it's Spectrum trying to bring our product or another entity, this is a major problem. It's a significant disadvantage for Ohioans. It needs to get resolved."

The complaint comes as the state and federal governments push to extend high-speed internet service throughout Ohio and the U.S. to areas that don't have it as part of an effort to close the digital divide.

Spectrum serves 2.8 million customers in Ohio. It says that in 2022, more than $750 million was invested in its Ohio network, reaching 36,000 new homes and businesses.

Spectrum said in the complaint that it is combining $1 billion of federal money with $4 billion of its own money to connect nearly 1 million homes in 24 states, including 110,000 in Ohio.

Spectrum says nearly 70,000 poles are awaiting AEP Ohio approval, and more than 70% are in rural parts of Appalachia where broadband is desperately needed.

What does Spectrum say AEP Ohio is doing?

In the complaint, Spectrum charges that AEP Ohio has been slow to approve access to the poles for Spectrum so that it can connect its wires to extend service to homes and businesses.

Spectrum says AEP is "a significant impediment to broadband deployment in the state, including to (Spectrum's) ability to access poles, deploy its facilities, and achieve its broadband goals and commitments under state and federal grants."

Dempsey said, on average, it takes about three months to get approval from the owner of the pole once an application is made.

As of Sept. 11, AEP Ohio had approved applications covering 14,298 of the 86,115 poles Spectrum has applied for, a total of 16.6%, according to Spectrum.

Of the applications still pending, 22,177 have been pending for more than seven months and 2,605 have been pending for more than a year, Spectrum said in the complaint.

Spectrum acknowledges that its requests for pole access are substantially higher than in years before and require more resources, but that it has offered AEP Ohio help to move the process along. Those offers were rejected.

Spectrum pays for the work.

"We’ve tried our best to be really solid partners with the pole owners, with AEP," Dempsey said. "We’ve tried to bring solutions to the table to help them go faster.’’

Dempsey said Spectrum hasn't had this trouble with other utilities, nor has it had this problem with AEP operations in other states.

What does AEP say?

"AEP Ohio is committed to facilitating stakeholders seeking to deliver broadband services in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the safety of our employees, contractors, or customers or negatively impact the reliability of our electrical grid," the company said in a statement. "AEP Ohio will continue to work with broadband providers, state agencies, including the PUCO and Broadband Ohio, as well as our pole attachment contractors to address requests to add broadband access."

Spectrum says it's looking for an order from regulators finding that AEP Ohio violated state law and to act more quickly to process applications.

Spectrum hopes a PUCO order will pressure AEP Ohio to go faster, Dempsey said.

"It’s been slow since ’19," Dempsey said. "We’ve been working with them well for over a year trying to get them to move faster."

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams