dcs2281
join:2004-09-14
Santa Clarita, CA | Utility Right of Ways Most property deeds have a utility right of way built into them, or at least they do in California. That is why more and more communities are going private - in ours we limited the "Right of way" to the street, not any property. Just down the hill from us they have cable, electric and telephone cabinets scattered about the yards. Most of them can't put anything up around it since the utility folks did themselves a favor and had codes changed for safety reasons where they have to have adequate access around them for service. Most of the shrubs must be at least 8 ft from the cabinet. |
| Hold on now. Are we really calling DSL equipment and service a utility?
And if we are giving this utility the "right of way", how many other companies that provide "utility" services can now gain the right of way?
And, if only one company can gain this "right of way" or "utility" status, then shouldnt that company be regulated heavily, and be forced to allow competition on its facilities?
Remember that these mega carriers have been lobbying hard to be seen less as monopolistic, government-helped-and-facilitated organizations, yet they turn around and want some kind of priviledge that only the government can exact in specific scenarios? |
dcs2281
join:2004-09-14
Santa Clarita, CA | One of the problems is utility right of ways is that as long as the cable, telephone, electric, and natural gas companies stay within the right of way there isn't much anyone can do about it. It would be nice if they tried to stay somewhat low profile with some of their equipment, but a good example is the new transformers the electric folks have been installing to replace some of the 30+ year ones. They were below ground, now some of them are appearing above ground. So the small 4' x 4' vent you used to have, that was level with the ground, is now an 8' x 8' dark green cabinet standing 4' above ground. They are citing the increased capacity for the larger size transformer. The same argument can be made for the telco's. Due to increased bandwidth needs, we are installing additional capacity. I do not agree with either one, it's just a way to get around the additional cost of burying it. The same thing could happen if the cable co. decided they needed a larger cabinet here, and then you would see their ugly cabinet as a tad fixture. |
