Rural counties across the United States have a common problem—the customer base is too low, so carriers are hesitant to invest money in infrastructure to provide cell coverage. One Virginia county is hoping to buck that trend, and has partnered with Florida-based CityScape Consulting to conduct a study on how to do that, reports the Fauquier Times.
The first step in that process is taking inventory of the county’s 69 cell towers, something that’s more difficult than it sounds. Carriers have swapped equipment on some of the towers and the rural landscape makes using a GPS difficult to locate all the structures, due to the poor wireless coverage.
CityScape is also helping the county find ways to streamline the zoning process to encourage carriers to invest in rural areas and make the approval of tall structures easier. The county is open to altering its zoning ordinance to streamline the wireless deployment process.
“We want to make it a win-win, to make it easier for the providers to put [towers and antennas] up in areas where we lack coverage,” Fauquier County Board of Supervisors Chairman Rick Gerhardt said, according to the account.
Another part of the study is identifying county-owned properties and structures Fauquier County could potentially use to partner with carriers to deploy infrastructure. The county has received some help from the state of Virginia, which passed a state law making it easier to install antennas on existing publicly-owned structures, a national trend Inside Towers reported on.
June 5, 2017
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