On 3/22/2014 12:24 PM, Frank Bulk wrote:

It's my understanding and experience that most gov't jurisdictions will give CLECs and other telecommunication providers access to the RoW -- generally speaking it's not exclusive to ILECs or MSOs. Now the challenge may be finding room in the existing RoW for another provider, but the challenges are not typically politically or "regulatorily" motivated.

IANAL I agree that the nasty gubbermint (much as I would rather be wrong here) has little to do with any of the RoW (Rights of Way) I know anything at all (precious little, it is) about. There are RoW and there are RoW. And the rules for each are different and codified (so far as I know) in the deed. There are railroad RoW granted in most case as a freebie from the gubbermint and over which the owning railroad has absolute control. There is the RoW around the perimeter of my property which is open it appears to me to any "utility". I don't know what all is in it here, but at a minimum it is the power company, the "telephone" company, and the "cable" company. I know of people whose property has no access to a public street and the owners thereof have a RoW across other people's property which right grants authority to build and maintain a roadway. There are power line and pipeline RoW where the owner has full rights to the surface as long as access to the facility involved is involved. Of course there are RoW owned and maintained by a variety of agencies for roadways and canals and I suppose they can be a little stuff about sharing. -- Requiescas in pace o email Two identifying characteristics of System Administrators: Ex turpi causa non oritur actio Infallibility, and the ability to learn from their mistakes. (Adapted from Stephen Pinker)