Mandatory Telecom Access to Apartment and Office Buildings Ruled Unconstitutional

BOSTON-A state judge here ruled that regulations allowing telecommunications service providers to have mandatory access to apartment and office buildings are unconstitutional. The ruling is expected to have ramifications throughout the country.

Suffolk County Superior Court Justice Mitchell J. Sikora ruled that the state’s regulations governing how building owners should manage and provide telecommunications access to their buildings constituted an impermissible taking of property without just compensation.

Plaintiffs in the case were led by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and were joined and assisted by the Real Access Alliance, which was founded by BOMA. According to Gerry Lederer of Miller & Van Eaton, Washington counsel for the Real Estate Board, the issue of access to buildings is a shared one. “Telecommunications issues are regulated at the state and federal level,” he tells Globest.com. “We’ve been successful at the federal level and now in 30 states.”