It's not an atypical arrangement (though, usually it's more likely that the power company owns the conduits rather than the telephone company). Those arrangements arose because the city doesn't want to get into the business of building and maintaining conduits. ECS provides non-discriminatory access to conduits at public rates: http://www.empirecitysubway.com/ratesbill.html. They charge Verizon the same rates as anyone else.
reply