Industry Hopes for Compromise as FCC Looks at How to Speed Tower Siting

"There’s going to be some coalescing around some key points,” predicted PCIA Director-Government Affairs Jonathan Campbell in an interview Tuesday. “As this dialogue continues in the docket, I think folks are going to realize that the industry is trying to use infrastructure simply and trying to work with the goals of streamlining broadband deployment and minimizing the new amount of towers and infrastructure that has to be built at localities that folks are worried about. I think we're going to find some common ground there."

A lawyer who represents wireless carriers said the 2012 spectrum law requires the FCC to revise siting rules. “Wheeler is going to look at ways to try to get the various sides to come to the table and work out an agreement,” predicted the lawyer. “That seems to be his approach so far: ‘Work out something on your own or the FCC can step in.'” The Spectrum Act said “a State or local government may not deny, and shall approve, any eligible facilities request for a modification of an existing wireless tower or base station that does not substantially change the physical dimensions of such tower or base station."

Carriers around the world are presented with the same issues in trying to build out their networks, said John Strand, an international consultant based in Denmark, who advises carriers and other industry players. “It’s difficult to get the permission to put up towers ... or even small cells,” Strand said in an interview. “It takes time. It’s very expensive. You have a lot of greedy landlords, not only public but also private landlords.” Strand said he has been called in by the FCC to provide an international context on tower siting. Strand said the Danish minister in charge of communications called in the regulator, the carriers and the local governments and told them they needed to work out a compromise on tower siting. “The only way the FCC can solve these problems and do something about this is a kind of call for cooperation where you need to call in the different stakeholders and say, ‘We have together a very important job,'” he said. “'We have to ensure that Americans have access to modern communications in the future and we have to be sure that it’s possible to build the wireless networks that we need in the future.'"

Verizon said there are legitimate market reasons for the FCC to modify siting rules. “Carriers securing additional spectrum in the upcoming AWS-3 and 600 MHz spectrum auctions will need to install additional antennas at their existing sites to provide service on that spectrum,” the carrier said (http://bit.ly/1gJJD5W). “The existing regime, however, applies the same exhaustive review process for installing additional antennas that it does for the first antennas installed on a building. The result has been to slow wireless providers’ ability to expand and enhance their network capacity quickly, and to drive up costs.” Most siting today doesn’t require the building of big, new antennas, Verizon noted. “Instead it involves installing much smaller antennas -- which typically can fit inside a box two feet on a side -- on smaller sites such as utility and light poles, or adding equipment to buildings and other sites that have already been approved for wireless equipment. And carriers attempt wherever possible to collocate with other carriers’ facilities."

AT&T urged the FCC to streamline the approval process for new broadband facilities under the National Environmental Policy and National Historic Preservation acts. “Wireless facility deployment will continue at a high pace, as Commission licensees seek to deploy new 700 MHz, AWS, WCS, and other soon-to-be auctioned wireless services for mobile broadband use and increase coverage and capacity to meet wireless demand on existing services,” AT&T said (http://bit.ly/1lyOZ64). “Although much of the infrastructure will consist of macro sites, alternative technologies with low mounted, low profile antennas, such as distributed antennas [sic] systems ... and small cells, will become more prevalent."

"Expediting the wireless siting process is essential to satisfying the demand for wireless broadband services,” CTIA said. The FCC should “(i) exempt temporary towers from the 30-day public notice requirement associated with tower registrations, (ii) clarify certain provisions of Section 6409(a) to eliminate uncertainty, (iii) fine tune the existing collocation and new build Shot Clocks, and (iv) clarify that distributed antenna systems ... and other small cell deployments are covered by Section 6409(a) and the Shot Clock,” the group said (http://bit.ly/1e0Z9Cy).

PCIA agreed that adopting changes proposed in the NPRM is critical. “Through this proceeding, the FCC is positioned to encourage greater deployment of DAS and small cells -— newer technologies that can address capacity and coverage needs and possess low profiles that make them desirable in historic areas,” PCIA said (http://bit.ly/1evpQUw). “The FCC can also better define its rules for collocations, which can be used to expand coverage or increase capacity while reducing the need for new towers.” DAS and small cells “play an increasingly important role, as network operators seek to target broadband capacity to the locations where customers use it most and to improve in-building coverage,” PCIA noted. The group noted that by 2015, AT&T plans to deploy more than 40,000 small cells and 1,000 DAS networks, plus 10,000 macrocells.

Qualcomm told the FCC it has set a corporate goal of providing technology so that the capacity of today’s wireless market can be expanded by 1,000 times. “A key piece of supporting 1000x more capacity will include the placement of very-low-power cellular base stations, i.e., small cells, much closer to user devices and integrating these low-power small cells into the larger macro-cellular networks,” Qualcomm said (http://bit.ly/1e0ZNja). “These miniature cells, which are about the size of the deck of playing cards, have connectivity similar to that of a typical macro -- cellular base station -— but unlike a typical base station —- small cells operate with very low power. Small cells will be unobtrusively placed indoors or just outside buildings, where lots of wireless traffic originates, and they will work together with larger macrocells to create a heterogeneous network or ‘het-net.'”