Request By:
Senator Denise Harper Angel
35th Senate DistrictRepresentative Ron Crimm
33rd Legislative District
Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Herrick, Assistant Attorney General
Opinion of the Attorney General
On April 3, 1886, the Ohio Valley Telephone Company was created as a corporate body by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly empowering it "to purchase, construct, maintain and operate, within this State and elsewhere, telephone lines, exchanges and systems," and providing that "[t]he said company may construct, equip and maintain said telephone systems and exchanges, and erect poles and string wires thereon, and operate its telephone lines over, along or under any highway, street or alley in the city of Louisville, with and by the consent of the general council of said city." OAG 62-644. The act declared that "the said company may also construct, equip and maintain telephone lines along, over or under the highways, streets and alley, and across any water-course within this Commonwealth, so as not to obstruct the same." (1885-1886 Session Acts, ch. 511, § 5.) This legislative act has been described as "an irrevocable, perpetual legislative franchise to maintain poles and lines upon any or all highways in the Commonwealth in such a manner as to afford no obstruction to public use."
Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Com., 266 S.W.2d 308, 310 (Ky. 1954).
The necessary consent of the city of Louisville was obtained through an ordinance passed on August 17, 1886.
City of Louisville v. Cumberland Tel. & Tel. Co., 224 U.S. 649 (1912). Ohio Valley's perpetual legislative franchise, having the nature of a property right, was transferable to successor entities. Id. Its current successor is AT&T Kentucky, which has acquired the franchise after a series of conveyances. Senator Denise Harper Angel and Representative Ron Crimm have requested an opinion on the following question: "May a telecommunications service provider, pursuant to its statewide franchise, without municipal approval, use and/or enhance its existing transmission facilities within a municipality's rights-of-way for the purpose of providing services other than those currently provided, including IP-enabled video services?"
The question presented, therefore, is whether the perpetual franchise originally granted in 1886 for telephone purposes is limited to telephone service only, or can include the use of the same rights-of-way for other forms of telecommunication without the franchisee's having to secure additional municipal approval from the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government. 1 If the statewide franchise is broad enough to include forms of communication other than simple telephony, then the city council's ratification in 1886, using similar language to the act of the General Assembly, may be construed as equally broad.
A franchise "is a right or privilege granted by a sovereign power to a party to do some act which such party could not do without a grant from the government."
Eastern Ky. Resources v. Arnett, 934 S.W.2d 270, 275 (Ky. 1996). The privilege granted to the Ohio Valley Telephone Company and its successors is, in essence, the right to use the public roadways for its poles, lines, and apparatus. 2 We have found no Kentucky authority stating whether the provision of other communication services in addition to traditional telephone service is in excess of the scope of the 1886 franchise for "telephone systems." Some eminent-domain cases from other jurisdictions, however, provide useful guidance on this question by analogy.
In
Ohio Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Steen, 85 N.E.2d 579 (Ohio 1949), the Ohio Court of Common Pleas found that where a communications company had the right to appropriate private land for telephone and telegraph lines, the fact that the cables would later be used also for television transmissions did not alter the purpose for which the condemnation was taking place. The court opined that "the transmission of television is merely an advancement or improvement in the art of telegraphy and telephony and therefore the right of eminent domain for telegraph and telephone purposes conferred by [statute] is applicable to television. " Id. at 580.
Similarly, in
Ball v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 86 So.2d 42 (Miss. 1956), the Supreme Court of Mississippi addressed the question: "May a telephone and telegraph company, which has constructed a telephone and telegraph cable line under an easement acquired by exercising the right of eminent domain, use the facilities thus constructed for television transmission along with telephone and telegraph transmission? " Id. at 44. The court's analysis was as follows:
Television is but one of many scientific achievements of the past few decades made possible by developments of the carrier art. Some of the others are radio, teletype, and the phototelegraph, each of which employs electrical impulses in the transmission process. Transmission techniques developed by or as an adjunct of the telephone business has made possible the services performed by these devices. We should not construe the eminent domain statutes so as to require the telephone and telegraph companies to secure new easements for every new device that employs the use of electrical impulses even when the new device performs a function other than the transmission of sound or articulate voice. To do so would lead to absurd and unreasonable results. We conclude that television transmission is an integral part of the telephone and telegraph business as it has developed and now exists. It follows that an easement acquired by eminent domain for telephone and telegraph lines, as the statute authorizes, may be used for television transmission along with other telephone and telegraph purposes.
We are confident that we commit no sin against the rights of private property. There is in fact no additional servitude on the servient estate. The cable that was laid under the appellant's land was constructed by authority of the statute as a new telephone and telegraph line, and appellant has been tendered full payment for the right to lay and maintain the cable. What concern is it then whether the silent and invisible impulses flowing through the cable carry radio, teletype, telephotography, telephone, telegraph, or television communication?
Id. at 45; see also
Pacific Tel. & Tel. Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 282 P.2d 36 (Cal. 1955).
Under this analysis, we perceive no material distinction between television transmissions and IP (Internet Protocol) -enabled video services. Therefore, based on this analysis and having considered the input of interested parties, it is our opinion that the perpetual legislative franchise would enable a successor entity of the Ohio Valley Telephone Company to provide such services within its existing rights-of-way in the Louisville Metro area without securing additional legislative or municipal authorizations. 3
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 We do not address the issue of whether a telephone company providing IP-enabled video services is subject to federal or state laws governing cable television providers, as that question is not presented here.
2 In a letter to this Office dated July 21, 2008, Jefferson County Attorney Irv Maze relates that under Chapter 53 of the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Code of Ordinances, "any person who for any purpose encroaches on Metro rights-of-way for purposes of constructing underground conduits or facilities must obtain a permit from the Metro Department of Public Works & Assets and is subject to the regulation of the Department while so doing. AT&T Kentucky, as well as its predecessors, have acknowledged that particular regulatory regime, and have always fully complied with it." Since the question here concerns the provision of additional services, not the construction of new facilities, we need not address Chapter 53.
3 This conclusion is consistent with opinions rendered by the Attorneys General of Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. See Al. Op. Atty. Gen. No. 2008-021 (December 14, 2007); Miss. A.G. Opinion No. 2007-00486 (September 28, 2007); Okl. A.G. Opin. No. 06-15 (May 3, 2006).