The General Telecommunications Act, like other telecommunications legislation in force in the past, grants operators the right to occupy private property and the public domain.
The case of the occupation of the private property is restricted to when it is strictly necessary for the installation of the network to the extent provided in the technical project presented and provided that there are no other technically or economically viable alternatives. This occupation can be carried out through forced expropriation or through the declaration of forced servitude of passage for the installation of infrastructure of public electronic communications networks. In these cases, the operators would have the status of beneficiaries in the files that are processed, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation on forced expropriation. Therefore, in extreme cases and when there are no other options, an operator could request the opening of such a file to the General Secretariat of Telecommunications and Information Technologies to carry out the installation of such infrastructure.
Therefore, when dealing with the expropriation procedure, as a tool reserved only for very specific situations, its application does not in any case have the character of daily life.
The most widespread procedure for the occupation of private property is the search for agreements with the owners of the farms and properties that the operators intend to use. If they cannot reach agreements in a property, they look for other properties, before starting an administrative procedure of expropriation or servitude, regulated by the Law of Forced Expropriation, which is significantly prolonged in time, has a cumbersome procedure and, in addition, carries a series of associated costs for the operator, and in which it is necessary to clearly and forcefully justify first and foremost, the need and unfeasibility of any other alternative, and subsequently, to process the special administrative procedure, mentioned above, according to the legislation of forced expropriation with the formal and guarantee requirements in which it is substantiated.
As regards the right to occupy the public domain, operators shall have the right to occupy the public domain insofar as this is necessary for the establishment of a public electronic communications network, under neutral, objective, transparent, equitable and non-discriminatory conditions, without in any case the holders of the public domain being able to establish any preferential or exclusive right of access or occupation of that public domain for the benefit of a particular operator or of a particular electronic communications network.