دانلود رایگان مقاله راه درست اشتباه راه: توجیه قانونی محو سازی برای حق تقدم زیرساخت های ارتباطات راه دو

ABSTRACT

Telecommunications providers use rights-of-way to build physical network infrastructure on lands they do not own. Agreements to use these lands are usually made with public landowners such as local governments. Traditional rules for these negotiations are based on public utilities law and the common law of land ownership. Specific rules for telecommunications providers are also based on common carriage and Carrier or Last Resort regulations. Furthermore, the exercise of property rights by local landowners are often mischaracterized by telecommunications companies as burdensome regulation, with policy and jurisprudence following suit. This paper argues that in an era of technological convergence and the erosion of traditional pubic interest responsibilities, there are now fewer justifications for the unfettered usage of publicly-controlled lands by telecommunications firms.

6. Conclusions

Evidence indicates that landowners are becoming more aware of their legal rights in regard to rights-of-way as used by private companies – from large private landowners like the paper companies who own entire forests, to national and state entities that oversee public lands, and local governments as well (Ackerson, 2003). A prominent telecommunications policy expert recently declared, “Now that telephone companies want to provide anything but [basic] wireline telephone service it strikes me that they should lose the rights of way granted to them by state public utility commissions.” He continued, “[I]f a telephone company no longer wants to serve as the carrier of last resort… then they in effect should be deemed to have abandoned their right to secure a property interest in my land,” and “[I]f a common carrier opts to abandon its common carrier duties, then it should lose its rights of way over private property for lines that no longer provide common carrier services” (Frieden, 2013a). This implies that telecom firms that use lands they do not own should deliver some sort of public interest benefit to local citizens, which has been the case in the past under common carrier regulations, but the justification for which is fading under modern technological and regulatory convergence.