It might be theoretically possible, or legal, but it would be hugely controversial and would be in the courts for sure. I do not think the FCC could do it with

It might be theoretically possible, or legal, but it would be hugely controversial and would be in the courts for sure. I do not think the FCC could do it with a rule it would take an act of congress which seems pretty unlikely in the current political atmosphere. It is not clear that the federal gov could use eminent domain to force cities and counties to relinquish rights of way, perhaps, but it would be pretty unprecedented in peace time as you point out. Interestingly, the former bell system was nationalized for a brief period in 1918 and run by the post office (an arrangement that some European countries have today) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_AT%26T https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_AT%26T But it did not last and was a complete disaster. I am sure a redux of that would end in tears. In the early 1980's the Bell System had something called ISDN which purported to be something like what we call the internet today. They had a plan to roll it out (64Kbps !) nationally over a 20 year time frame. Had not AT&T been broken up in 1984 I posit that the internet we know today would have never emerged, it was free enterprise and entrepreneurship that made it happen.