In a forward-thinking move, Verizon, AT&T and the City of San Jose, CA were already working in harmony when the pandemic descended, according to city administrators. As GovTech reports, because the telecoms were already actively installing cell tower poles in underserved neighborhoods, San Jose residents did not suffer the equity divide reported in other locations. Deputy City Manager, Kip Harkness, referred to his city’s arrangement as a “virtuous cycle.”
Harkness explained that prior to the pandemic, Verizon and AT&T “signed on with us and, between the two of them, would install 4,000 5G small cells. And so, for the last 18 months prior to the pandemic, we were actually scaled up and had that fully going, so that fortuitously by the time we went into shelter-in-place, we had a fully digital system already built.” He added that the city had also moved to paperless permitting, which kept the process from getting bogged down in paperwork. “When the pandemic hit, there were no pieces of paper to be lost, we were able to permit at 70 [small cells] a week,” Harkness explained.
The success of the equity-focused small cell installation is something that both the city and the telecoms say they would like to continue. With this goal in mind, financial management of installation fees, approximately $750 per pole, has been restructured. City workers are paid first, with any overage being directed to the new Digital Inclusion Fund. The funds are awarded as grants, based on the recommendations of community-based organizations.
“At that point,” said Harkness, “We sat down in partnership mode and said, ‘We want to continue to accelerate connectivity, but as you build out the next round, we need more of that to happen in the neighborhoods of need rather than in other places.’”
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