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.
