Wireless Industry United on Need for Streamlined Siting Rules for Small Cell Deployments

CTIA urged the FCC to tweak its rules on several fronts. DAS and other small-cell systems “use components that are a fraction of the size of macrocell deployments, and can be installed -- with little or no impact -- on utility poles, buildings, and other existing structures,” CTIA said. “DAS and small cells are effective ways to improve capacity and coverage of macro wireless networks: they often can be deployed at lower cost and, because of their size, with fewer local concerns.”

CTIA said the FCC should exclude from Section 106 review deployments where review is required just because the building or structure is more than 45 years old, modify proposed volumetric limits “given the recognition that DAS and small cell deployments have minimal visual impacts” and not apply a 250-foot buffer from the boundary of an historic district for small deployments not on historic properties or in historic districts. The rules should allow a streamlined process for identifying structures eligible for listing in the National Register, clarify what constitutes “new ground disturbance” and exclude from review small wireless facility collocations located in pre-existing utility and communications rights of way, CTIA said.

Verizon said addressing the rules is critical since the industry plans to add tens of thousands of small cell installations in coming years. Verizon said it alone will add 30,000 DAS and small cell facilities. “While very few of these small facilities could adversely affect historic properties, the current historic preservation and tribal review process subjects most of them to those reviews, delaying deployment,” Verizon said in comments. “Absent relief from the current process, many of these deployments will face long delays that impede new service.”

AT&T said the FCC should consider additional amendments to the collocation national programmatic agreement. The FCC should also exclude from Section 106 review replacement nontower structures and small cell facilities that are “camouflaged, not visible, or approved by local interests,” AT&T said.

The U.S. has long been the leading country on mobile broadband, 4G Americas said in comments. "If it's to continue that role, and ensure that 4G is allowed in this country to successfully evolve into 5G -- i.e., the fifth generation of mobile broadband -- the U.S. government will have to expedite siting for small cells and DAS networks.”The change will help carriers densify their networks, 4G Americas said: “5G will entail an array of applications, including faster mobile broadband over consumer handheld devices and the IoT.”

Electric and natural gas utility Xcel Energy asked the FCC to impose the same rules in place for utility structures that are more than 45 years old to collocations on nonutility structures, including buildings, bridges and water tanks. “If a collocation on a utility pole is exempt from historic preservation review because the antenna is limited in size, it is more than 250 feet outside the boundary of a historic district, there would not be any new ground disturbance, and there are no pending complaints, then a collocation on a building next to that utility pole should also be exempt from historic preservation review,” the utility said. Xcel said it has an interest because communications infrastructure is critical to its efforts to install as reliable a communications network as possible to manage its utility assets effectively.

The Texas Historical Commission supported the proposal in genera​l. But relative to size limits, the commission said, “We suggest that other equipment on the same structure, including ancillary and preexisting equipment, should be considered in some fashion due to the potential for cumulative effects.”