摘要: |
Over the past several years, many states and local communities have been dealing with the need to substantially increase their usage of telecommunications. This is the result of the deployment of more surveillance capability, specifically television cameras, and the need to distribute this and other transportation data to more public agencies and to the public at large. While the needs have been growing, the telecommunications industry has also been undergoing major changes in both technology and the marketplace. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has added new impetus to the change process. Other changes in the regulator environment have been occurring in the same time frame. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) changed its policy on the use of Right Of Way (ROW) several years ago, and now the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is in the process of altering its ROW policy. All of these changes have also created new issues as government agencies have tried to deal in this new environment. It is the purpose of this memorandum to provide an overview of the approaches that have been successfully employed by a number of state and local governments to deal with this new environment -- a few "Best Practices". Three current topics will be addressed: 1) designing a telecommunications network, 2) should you lease or build a network, and 3) using your ROW to obtain telecommunications. |