We want to deliver data services to an apartment complex but are unsure of who owns the wire: the property owner or the phone company. How can we determine this?
This boils down to a legal question, and we can’t dispense legal advice without getting into big, big trouble. The FCC and most state legislatures have enacted, or have pending, legislation promoting competition by ruling against captive agreements, particularly where building wire is concerned. We suggest you contact an attorney in your state that is versant in telecommunication law, which seems to change month by month. But before you spend your pocket change there, try a couple of “acid tests” that will give you reasonable assurance. First, ask your property owner if there is a written agreement with the phone carrier on ownership of the wire. If none exists, the wire likely falls under “fixtures” of the property, meaning it is owned by the building owner. Another way is to call the phone company and ask who is responsible for fixing a faulty phone circuit within an apartment unit. If they say the property owner (meaning they are only responsible to the demarc), they are essentially
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