"It's finally over," says David Begelfer, CEO of Massachusetts's branch of the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties. NAIOP, along with the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, challenged the DTE's rule that dictated the terms by which property owners were required to accommodate telecom carriers seeking access to their buildings. The DTE's rule gave any competitive telecom service provider the authority to enter every privately owned, multi-tenanted building in the state to install their own wiring and equipment for little or no cost.

NAIOP, the GBREB and MAR challenged the rule almost immediately after it came out a year ago, putting a halt to any changes pending this appeal. "Nothing will change now," notes Begelfer. "What won't happen is that every building will be open to any telecom company to come into any building without cost to the telecom company. It was giving away property rights."

The decision states that the rule was in "effect an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation because the regulations compel access to private property for the physical attachment of wires or cables." NAIOP says that the judgment also "permanently enjoined the department from implementing those regulations to the extent that they applied to private landowners."

Begelfer points out that considering the current state of the telecom industry, in which many providers have gone out of business, "we were very prescient. If landlords can't make the decision about the telecom company, tenants could be left high and dry."