FCC Aides Hear Arguments on Both Sides for Wireless Infrastructure Order
The Wireless Infrastructure Association spoke with aides to all five FCC commissioners to argue for approval next week (see 2010060060) of the compound expansions draft order, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-250. The order “will promote broadband deployment…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
and provide greater certainty,” WIA said. CTIA also supported the order: “By revising its Section 6409(a) rules to streamline review of site expansions of up to 30 feet, the Commission will facilitate the collocation of antennas and associated ground equipment on existing towers to enable 5G, advancing the Commission’s longstanding policy to promote more intensive use of existing infrastructure, while recognizing localities’ role in local land use decisions.” NATOA spoke with aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks about concerns (see here and here). “While we continue to believe that Section 6409(a) of the Spectrum Act cannot be reasonably read to allow for new deployment outside the tower site, should the Commission nevertheless amend its rules to this end, the permitted distance of the excavation or deployment from the site should be relative to the size of the existing tower site,” NATOA said. The group criticized the lack of a cap on the allowed size of deployments: “It could allow additions to tower sites of unlimited size -- an outcome that cannot be reconciled with a statute requiring approval only of modifications that are not substantial.”