Indiana lawmakers revisit ‘cable pollution’ complaints as locals press for state oversight

At a gathering of the Interim Study Committee on Environmental Affairs at the Indiana Statehouse, Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, and Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett urged lawmakers to act on what they call “cable pollution,” arguing that the tangled infrastructure poses safety risks and financial burdens for locals.

“This has cost cities, towns and taxpayers thousands of dollars,” Barnett told the panel. “Most of the time we are left to clean up the abandoned cables and the mess that they leave in our right-of-ways.”

Barnett, a former underground-utility manager, said Franklin — located in Johnson County, about 20 miles south of Indianapolis — has spent about $60,000 hiring consultants to trace and remove unused wires.

“We shouldn’t have to spend taxpayer dollars fixing the telecoms’ problems,” he said. “It’s time for some oversight that puts everyone on the same playing field.”

“The problem is with the telecoms,” Barnett added. “They need standards and oversight.”

Davis, who authored House Bill 1480 earlier this year, said she filed the measure at Barnett’s request to establish “minimum standards for the installation and maintenance of communication service or utility service facilities in a public right-of-way.” The bill received a House hearing but no vote.

“Now that you know about it,” Davis told the panel, “you see it everywhere.”

Locals ask for more oversight

Earlier this year, during the 2025 session, lawmakers negotiated a separate compromise over pole-attachment rules aimed at accelerating broadband access. That earlier discourse pitted investor-owned utilities against telecom providers over who controls space on poles and how much they can charge.

Lawmakers suggested on Wednesday that the state could still revisit the issue from another angle — this time focused on what happens after those lines are installed.

Barnett’s slideshow showed photographs of hanging bundles and broken outdoor telecom cabinets. He described a five-year ordeal to get one abandoned communications cabinet removed and said telecom mergers make it even harder to identify which company is responsible.

“When a provider buys another provider, there is a lack of responsibility and liability for transactions,” he said.

Wells County Surveyor Jarrod Hahn, president of the County Surveyors Association, separately told lawmakers that problems with abandoned utilities are not limited to cities and towns, but are also common in rural areas.

“The short answer to the question of, ‘Do underground abandoned utilities cause problems?’ The short answer to that is, yes, they do,” Hahn said.

He described how generations of infrastructure — ranging from old oil field pipes to drainage tiles and telecom cables — have been left in the ground, often with no records.

“We are just as guilty at local government of putting in new infrastructure and leaving the old in place,” Hahn said.

He emphasized, too, the difficulty of tracking what’s underground, especially as companies change hands and records are lost.

“With the larger telecom companies, they subcontract their locating. Those locators probably do not have access to that historical knowledge. All they have is the map of what’s currently being used,” Hahn said. “Underground, out of sight, out of mind — nobody knows what’s buried below the ground.”

Telecom industry pushes back

Lawmakers from both parties sympathized but split on whether state or local governments should intervene. Currently, oversight falls largely to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

Committee Chair Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, said he preferred local solutions.

“You have the ability, if you have a communication company that comes in, to deny him a permit [because of] their past work,” he said. “I’m not looking to bring the state in on anything, unless we need to.”

Others, including Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, said local ordinances are no substitute for consistent statewide rules.

“It would only be prudent for the state to have some kind of requirement and penalties,” Taylor said, suggesting identifiers on each line so city and town officials can determine ownership.

Representatives for AT&T and Comcast spoke later in the hearing, arguing against new state mandates.

Steve Rogers, a lobbyist for AT&T, cautioned that statewide rules could duplicate existing federal or IURC oversight and slow broadband expansion.

Rogers pushed back on the idea that problems with abandoned cables and utility oversight are widespread or indicative of a “wild west” environment across Indiana.

He told lawmakers that broadband expansion already faces “complex federal and IURC oversight” and that additional rules could “slow down investment and deployment.”

“If [Barnett’s] experience was typical, I would know it. You would know it. … You’d have mayors lined up out the door,” Rogers said. “That is not the way that it usually works. The way that it usually works is they call the provider. The provider comes in. We resolve the issue, we move on. If we don’t, they stop issuing permits. And the minute you tell somebody they can’t build their network, you’d be amazed how responsive they become.”

He also warned against giving hundreds of municipalities broad new regulatory authority, saying it would create “huge bureaucracies” and drive up costs for customers.

“We are subject to the National Electric Safety Code. We’re subject to 811, ‘Call Before You Dig Regulations.’ We’re subject to FCC pole attachment regulations,” Rogers said. “The idea that there are no rules and we need to give cities and towns the ability to fine people — that is just not the case.”

He additionally addressed the issue of abandoned cable, noting the difficulty of defining what’s actually abandoned and the need for flexibility in network management.

“I don’t know how you regulate abandoned cable, because somebody’s definition of what’s abandoned is going to be different from another person’s,” Rogers argued.

He explained that extra capacity is often built into networks, and that removing unused lines every time a customer cancels service would be inefficient.

“We would rather put our money towards capital investment in building fiber networks than things that don’t provide service to customers,” he added.

Joni Hart, representing Comcast, echoed those concerns, telling the committee the company already works with local governments to address safety issues and that additional regulation could “discourage investment” in fiber projects.

She said most providers respond quickly when notified of damaged or hanging lines and urged lawmakers to “avoid one-size-fits-all mandates.”

Hart emphasized the complexity of broadband deployment, which often requires working across “multiple jurisdictions, multiple pole owners,” and sometimes crossing “30 counties to do a line across the state.” She pushed back on the idea that companies are intentionally skirting permit requirements.

“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in Indiana on getting permits, expediting permits, making sure that we’re getting that process correct and the man hours to go with that,” Hart maintained.

While “it hasn’t always been the case,” she said Comcast now marks its aerial cables at installation. For older lines that “may or may not be” marked, Hart said the company actively adds tags during maintenance or when issues arise.

“We want to be a good community partner with these areas,” Hart said. “We want to be focusing both on deployment and being a responsible community partner.”