Lancaster City Council put a stop to Mobilitie LLC’s plans to install more than 70 small cell antennas in the middle of the town’s historic district rights-of-way, reported Philly.com. Many small cells have already been installed in other areas in the state. “The city would look God-awful with these towers all over,” said Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the city’s director of public works.
Last May, Mobilitie LLC became a certified utility in the town but due to zoning changes rushed through by the City Council, many streets were declared “off limits.” And last month, the Public Utility Commission stripped Mobilitie and other distributed-antenna companies of utility status, a regulation the Commission had been pondering for over a year due to complaints from residents in 60 Pennsylvania cities and towns.
Surrounding areas, such as Philadelphia, are bracing for the “attack of the small cells,” as wireless companies begin increasing capacity for current 4G service and anticipating needs to usher in 5G service. According to the CTIA, data traffic in 2016 increased 35 times over since 2010, and expectations are that data use will continue to surge.
With this swell comes more infrastructure, since big cell towers are nearing coverage limits and wireless carriers find ways to boost capacity via small cells. According to Joe Madden, the chief analyst at the research firm Mobile Experts, the number of small cell antennas in the United States could reach one million.
For those opposed to utility designation for distributed-antenna companies, telecom attorney Daniel Cohen said that municipalities face a rude awakening if they aren’t prepared for the massive changes transforming the wireless industry, including upgrading zoning laws. Cohen added, “We need to strike a balance between wireless advances and preservation of our communities.”
In Philadelphia, hundreds of small cell units have already been approved and installed on Peco electric utility poles and city-owned streetlight or traffic-signal poles, according to Philadelphia Deputy Managing Director Michael Carroll. And with wireless capacity demands, he expects that number to move into the thousands. However, Carroll noted the need for new poles, like those proposed in Lancaster, shouldn’t be necessary. “I am pretty confident that there is enough capacity with the electric poles and streetlight poles that we should not see a lot of requests for putting in new poles,” Carroll said.
June 5, 2017
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