Any telegraph or telephone company organized under the laws of this or any other State, or of the United States may erect, construct and maintain the necessary poles, wires, conduits, and other fixtures for its lines, in, upon, along, over or under any public street, road or highway, upon first obtaining the consent in writing of the owner of the soil to the erection of such poles, and through, across or under any of the waters within this State and upon, through or over any other land, subject to the right of the owners thereof to full compensation for the same.
N.J.S. § 48:17-8