To assist rights-of-way stakeholders in understanding and improving the authorization process for constructing new communications networks that carry broadband Internet and other communications services, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has launched an electronic report on state and local rights-of-way. 

Intended as a resource for state and local land managers, communications providers, and other rights-of-way stakeholders, the report provides information about the laws, regulations, policies and practices that affect state and local management of rights-of-way.  The report can be found at: www.ntia.doc.gov.

The electronic report includes a state-by-state matrix that provides the rights-of-way laws relating to jurisdiction, compensation, timelines, nondiscrimination, mediation and condemnation in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.  The report also includes an evolving compendium of rights-of-way “success stories,” explaining how industry and government have devised creative new approaches to facilitate access to public rights-of-way.  These examples are chosen to help other communities and companies that are considering improvements to rights-of-way management.  Stakeholders are invited to contribute further examples to this evolving document.

Access to rights-of-way -- the conduits, corridors, trenches, tower sites, and other physical passageways that modern communications networks traverse -- is critical to the deployment of broadband services.  NTIA’s electronic report is intended to help advance the dialog on rights-of-way management at the state and local level, with the goal of promoting broadband deployment across all states and localities in the United States.