The median household income for Lakewood Ranch, Florida is more than $100,000, but there’s still one thing residents don’t have—good wireless coverage. USA Groups, a construction and project management company based in Sarasota, is hoping to change that with the installation of small cells in the community.
Earlier this week, representatives of the company presented the idea to Lakewood Ranch District 1 supervisors, a community whose residents have complained about the poor quality of cell coverage in the area.
USA Groups highlighted the positives of installing several small cell towers within the community—each measuring between 30 to 40 feet tall and designed as street lamps to match the existing cityscape.
Among these benefits, chief among them improved connectivity for its residents, would be the fact that such a system would cost the district nothing as USA Groups would lease space to carriers who wish to install equipment on the structures. Also, small cells quell public health concerns as they emit far less radiation than macro-sites. Ben Edmunds, a representative for USA Groups said emissions from small cells are about “the same as two night lights.”
District supervisors did not endorse or approve the plan. Manatee County owns the public rights-of-way in the district and is developing a zoning process for small cells. It will not begin accepting applications on the technology until February, 2017.
December 15, 2016
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