Muni Relations With Wireless Sector Better Than With FCC

TAMPA -- Municipal relations with carriers are generally better than with the FCC, some local representatives told us Monday. A lawyer for localities and a consultant to them criticized the FCC for tensions. A cable and telecom official from a Washington suburb and a NATOA board member who's a utility-company lawyer said they're getting along OK with wireless-service providers.

The federal commission has been trying to make deploying wireline and wireless infrastructure easier when it comes to local and other hurdles, and some of those actions are now in court. Instead of recognizing localities want to get residents better broadband, the FCC took a more adversarial approach, said the locality lawyer and the consultant. The agency declined to comment.

"The FCC has unfathomably identified America’s local communities as the enemy of broadband expansion," said CTC Technology & Energy President Joanne Hovis, a former NATOA president. "Just about every community" in the U.S. "is seeking ways to attract private investment in broadband" and in 5G "and to enable it," she said. The attorney talks "to hundreds of communities a year that are just seeking tools and methodologies to do it and are just mystified to see the FCC say they are in the way" of further deployment, she added. She called this FCC focus "remarkably distracting to the core issues around broadband." This "should not be laid at the feet of local government at a time when local government is aggressively trying to achieve the opposite."

Like other agencies in this administration, the FCC's decided it's "going to sweep away as many regulations as possible," said Joe Van Eaton of the Best Best law firm. And, do that "as broadly as possible" even if shortcuts are taken, he said. "You’re going to see at the FCC sort of a disregard" for localities here, although they want to engage, Van Eaton said: Some FCC "orders show no regard" for local issues on use of streetlights and on other matters.

Between industry and cities, "it's a mixed bag," Van Eaton said. "They are actually coming in and trying to cooperate with communities." That's "outside the FCC process" and limitations like shot clocks, he responded to our query from the audience: "The industry has some blind spots that it’s useful to talk to them about." He cited work by carrier subcontractors and putting antennas and other things aboveground instead of under streets as with fiber: "Not one person in industry has ever come in and explained ... why they need these facilities, why it’s necessary to wreck your streetscape."

Conversations with carriers seeking access to Fairfax County, Virginia, towers "are generally going fairly smoothy," said Communications and Policy Regulation Division analyst Doug Povich. "We have more difficulty with the cable providers. We have two renewals right now of their cable contracts with Verizon and Comcast. That is a little bit more contentious."

CPS Energy has a "great relationship with all of the carriers," said Senior Counsel Gabriel Garcia. "We’ve been working with all of them for over three years now," even before a Texas law, added the NATOA board member: "We have become partners, we have several pilot programs." His company's position is "we want the community to have this technology," he said. Because "telecom contractors do not know how to work on electric poles" and their employees' definition of what's safe is different from an electric utility lineman’s, the San Antonio city-owned electricity provider gives such contractors some training and an area to install attachments before the pole is standing in the field. "As these providers have been working in our pole yard, they are beginning to compete against each other" on safety, Garcia said.

NATOA Notebook

Local governments and their advocates want more FCC action related to RF safety and wireless including 5G, they told the conference Monday. NATOA General Counsel Nancy Werner noted that federal law bars towns from considering cellular structures based on such emissions, even though communities may want such power. "For years now," NATOA been asking for an FCC update about RF safety, she noted, and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has an item circulating (see 1908080061). "I don’t think that what we will get from the FCC will appease the concerns of residents," Werner said. "I suspect that the wireless industry knows that isn’t going to be good enough." It’s unclear it's "going to address the specific concerns" of small cells, said the lawyer, who nonetheless hopes it does. "There's an opportunity for us to educate on what 5G is" that could include safety considerations, said T-Mobile Principal Corporate Counsel-Land Use Dylan Fuge. "In explaining what it can do and sort of the transformation, I think there’s the perception that it’s really different" and this generation "came out of the ether," Fuge said. "I think there’s the feeling that it’s the ‘other,'" he added. "There’s an opportunity to do some work there."

Government can hold public events on this issue, said Austin Telecom and Regulatory Affairs Officer Rondella Hawkins. An official from another city, speaking from the audience, said that "we just feel like our hands are tied under current law." The FCC declined to comment. CTIA's "pleased" Pai's item "would preserve the existing guidance for health and safety, in keeping with the international scientific consensus," emailed a spokesperson for that association. "We look forward to the FCC completing the proceeding soon."

U.S. 5G rollout is proceeding apace, as the country competes with South Korea to be a leader on the standard, said Nokia's Khoslaa. "From the U.S. point of view, we are at the forefront of these developments." He noted the country's top four and other carriers are deploying it, while South Korea quickly gained 5G subscribers after it was introduced there. "We continue to see very good traction" in 5G overall and "there’s still growth in 4G" expected for now, the executive said. "It is on a fast path in terms of ramp up." The standard can help address the digital divide, he said. It can address households without fiber, which is most of them in the U.S., he added, as Microsoft finds some 160 million people don't use the internet at broadband-fast speeds. "There is a gap here that needs to be addressed," Khoslaa said. "Even within the cities, there is still … a disparity" and fixed wireless can address these "challenges," he continued: "Fixed wireless access is really here and now. So there are opportunities here" to provide broadband.

It's taking time, perhaps longer than expected, for fully autonomous automobiles to deploy, a local official said. "The horizon seems to be moving backward in terms of when those will be available," said Policy Analyst Brian Roberts of San Francisco city and county's department of technology, noting such autos are being tested in his city. "We do have some time to resolve those sorts of issues" like security, said Roberts. "Those are the kinds of things we are going to have to be thinking about." CTA declined to comment; the Information Technology Industry Council didn't comment.