Following this development, the Federal Communications Commission has moved a vote on rules, scheduled for September 14, to ensure the telecom entrants access to offices and apartment buildings. In return, property owners have begun lobbying against such a mandate, writes The Washington Post.

However, in the absence of an authority to exercise control over the landlords, the FCC has developed cold feet and is reluctant to press the issue. Instead, it is encouraging a negotiated resolution between the telecom companies and the landlords.

For more than a year, the commission has been considering rules that would force property owners to allow new entrants into buildings to wire customers. But real estate companies have argued that the FCC lacks the jurisdiction to enforce these rules.

However, Real Access Alliance, an umbrella group of major real estate owners in Washington, has sought to preempt the rules this month with voluntary pledges of guaranteed building access for some new competitors where tenants have requested service. But the upcoming companies have dismissed the commitments as inadequate and not enforceable. The FCC, on the other hand, perceives that unless landlords open their doors to new telephone entrants, the market will remain dominated by the entrenched Bell companies, which control the majority of wires reaching homes and businesses.

New ventures such as Vienna based Teligent are using the airwaves to transmit telephone service and high-speed Internet connections into buildings to take on competition from Bell companies. To provide the services, they need to place an antenna on the rooftop and tap into the internal wiring to deliver a dial tone. But many landlords are effectively delaying or impeding service with demands for expensive fees and engineering studies, the new companies argued. Sometimes, they say, the landlords deny access altogether.

Property owners, on the other hand, counter that they are simply seeking to safeguard their buildings and services for their tenants by ensuring there is no damage from installing antennas on rooftops or new wiring. The landlords say the companies are simply crying foul in the hopes of using the regulators to pry their way into more buildings at lower costs.

Ever since Congress adopted the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was aimed at deregulating the industry, such battles have raged. When the FCC took up the issue last year, it considered imposing rules that would force landlords to provide access to the rival companies in exchange for fair compensation. Several members of Congress have since added their voices to that chorus.

Though the FCC remains convinced that they have the authority to regulate landlords as part of their broad mandate to foster telecom competition, a negotiated resolution has become the more palatable approach.