Bill to Ease Wireless Infrastructure Siting Circulating in Senate

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Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) circulated a draft bill aimed at helping the wireless industry’s transition to 5G. The measure would limit the ability of a state or local government to prohibit infrastructure siting access to a pole or right-of-way except in cases of “insufficient capacity” or for safety, engineering, reliability or concealment reasons, according to the 18-page draft discussion document examined by Inside Towers.

It also limits local governments’ ability to restrict infrastructure upgrades or impose moratoria outright. States or municipalities must act on requests by wireless providers to co-locate their infrastructure within 60 days and 90 days for other permitting requests. 

The measure does not interfere with the ability of a state or municipality to “manage access to and use of poles, rights-of-way” or other government-owned property for wireless infrastructure. It also does not impede their right to require “fair and reasonable compensation” for that access if the compensation is “competitively neutral, technology neutral, and nondiscriminatory,” and the local government discloses the compensation. Fees must be based on “actual and direct costs” of issuing and processing permits, reviewing plans and conducting physical inspections related to permitting.

Not more than a year after passage, the federal government would “study the process for obtaining a grant of a right-of-way from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to deploy broadband infrastructure on tribal land” and submit the report to Congress. State and local governments should consult with local and national telecom providers and other stakeholders before beginning a highway construction project to determine “whether to install broadband conduit under hard surfaces” as part of that project.

CTIA praised the draft language. “By modernizing how wireless networks are deployed, this draft bill would help enable the wireless industry to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to win the global race to 5G,” said CTIA SVP Government Affairs Kelly Cole. “We look forward to its quick passage.”

November 2, 2017 

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