I'm not sure that I precisely understand the question, but I can at least provide some information on how California has addressed this. Unfortunately, my impression has been that from a regulatory side, there is not always clear or comprehensive guidance in this area. Telecommunications companies sometimes pay to install their fiber optic lines on electric transmission towers. Most local distribution poles in residential neighborhoods typically have electric wires at the top, and telecommunications/internet/cable TV wires attached lower down. The poles are most often owned by the electric utility, but poles can also be owned by telecommunications providers. Ensuring that the pole has no more load on it than it can safely hold has sometimes been an issue. I don't really know how things are handled for underground cables and conduit, but my impression is that it is even less clear or more variable than for poles.
While the electric utilities typically have their own fiber networks for their own use, I don't think they are necessarily consistent with whether they will make capacity on those networks available for use by telecom/internet companies, but rather it varies from company to company. It has been a few years since I dealt with this directly, but I don't recall seeing anything about a major change in this area. I hope this provides at least a little bit of useful information...
Sign in to Participate