Asked by lawmakers what Congress can do to facilitate the wireless industry’s deployment of 5G services, CTIA VP Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann said easing the siting process could save time and money. The wireless industry invested some $23 billion in network upgrades in the past year. Siting infrastructure, especially across western land owned by the federal government, now takes between two to four years. “If you can make that faster,” that would help, he told lawmakers Thursday during a spectrum hearing of the Communications Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.
Current federal, state, local, and tribal siting laws were developed “for large cell towers, not small cells,” which he described as the size of a pizza box or a lunch box. That type of infrastructure will be deployed by the hundreds of thousands, said Bergmann. Congress could do a lot to address burdensome local permitting processes and modernize rights-of-way access and pole attachment policies. CTIA suggests “reasonable” shot clocks for new site and co-location permit applications. “Permit fees and other charges for wireless siting should be reduced to reflect small cells’ minimal impact and be limited to the actual, incremental costs to localities for processing these applications,” he said.
“The next generation of wireless, 5G, will add three million new jobs and half a trillion dollars to our economy. To deliver on this promise, the wireless industry needs more spectrum and streamlined siting rules to facilitate our deployment of that spectrum,” said Bergmann. He added the U.S. is in a race with Japan, the E.U. South Korea and China for leadership in 5G.
March 3, 2017
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