Sec. 6g.

(1) As used in this section:

(a) “Attaching party” means any person, firm, corporation, partnership, or cooperatively organized association, other than a utility or a municipality, which seeks to construct attachments upon, along, under, or across public ways or private rights of way.

(b) “Attachment” means any wire, cable, facility, or apparatus for the transmission of writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds, or other forms of intelligence or for the transmission of electricity for light, heat, or power, installed by an attaching party upon any pole or in any duct or conduit owned or controlled, in whole or in part, by 1 or more utilities.

(c) “Commission” means the Michigan public service commission created in section 1.

(d) “Utility” means any public utility subject to the regulation and control of the commission that owns or controls, or shares ownership or control of poles, ducts, or conduits used or useful, in whole or in part, for supporting or enclosing wires, cables, or other facilities or apparatus for the transmission of writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds, or other forms of intelligence, or for the transmission of electricity for light, heat, or power.

(2) The commission shall regulate the rates, terms, and conditions of attachments by attaching parties. The commission, in regulating the rates, terms, and conditions of attachments by attaching parties, shall not require a hearing when approving the rates, terms, and conditions unless the attaching party or utility petitions the commission for a hearing. The commission shall ensure that the rates, terms, and conditions are just and reasonable and shall consider the interests of the attaching parties' customers as well as the utility and its customers.

(3) An attaching party shall obtain any necessary authorization before occupying public ways or private rights of way with its attachment.

(4) Procedures under this section shall be those applicable to any utility whose rates charged its customers are regulated by the commission, including the right to appeal a final decision of the commission to the courts.

History: Add. 1980, Act 470, Eff. Mar. 31, 1981