By Ben Horvath, contributing reporter
As demand for data continues to rise within the industry, wireless carriers are finding ways to expand their networks to meet this unprecedented demand increase. For many carriers, leasing property owned by local municipalities enables them to do just that: expand their data networks, particularly in densely populated neighborhoods and urban areas. This past month, for example, the City of Baltimore introduced legislation for a franchise agreement with Extenet Systems. This agreement would allow Extenet to install antennas on the city’s property, including its 86,000 light poles.
In an interview he gave with The Baltimore Sun, Ken Schmidt, president of Steel in the Air Inc., said this deal is indicative of a national trend. “Baltimore is one of dozens of cities across the country approached in recent years as a companies—both providers and third-party network operators—search for existing infrastructure where they can install the smaller, less obtrusive systems to relieve the congestion and send signals inside buildings more effectively,” Schmidt said.
Bud Blinick, President of Cell at Auction, a company who represents local municipalities in negotiations with wireless carriers, said these deals often benefit both the carrier and local government. For carriers, these deals enable their networks to expand; and for local governments, they serve as a way to increase revenue for public expenditures. “It’s easier for carriers to go through municipalities and get equipment installed on public property, rather than jumping through a lot of hoops, like licenses, zoning and approval,” Blinick said. “Municipalities want these deals because they’re realizing they can use the income to fund public programs, like education and schooling and do so in a way that avoids raising taxes,” he said.
While some carriers choose to hang antennas on pre-existing structures located on public land, like light poles, water towers or schools, others lease tower space through cell site development companies, who specialize in development on public lands. For instance, Milestone Communications, a cell tower development company, specializes in building concealed structures on publicly owned land, and then subleasing space on these structures to carriers. Len Forkas, President and CEO of Milestone, said building structures on public property enables carriers to deliver services in highly populated areas. “Wireless infrastructure needs to be in areas where people are located, in some of these areas it’s difficult to get structures built to support antennas,” Forkas said.
For this reason, Milestone specializes in turning pre-existing public infrastructure into infrastructure on which carriers can hang their equipment. They have more deals between municipalities and wireless companies, and carriers and tower developers, because of the need to expand data networks, according to Forkas. Forkas said when he began in the industry in 2000, it was much more “linear,” meaning carriers needed to provide coverage in areas where customers were going “from point A to point B,” so alongside roads and highways.
However, the industry has shifted, argues Forkas, so that carriers have to provide data coverage for customers, not just in areas where a customer may make phone calls, but also near customers’ cities and neighborhoods. “Today, the industry is much more focused on where consumers are, where they live and work, and this is because for the demand for data,” Forkas said.
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