“The tall tower still has a long, healthy future in this country.” So said Thomas Murray, founder and managing member of Community Wireless Structures, to lawmakers Tuesday in a House Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing on removing barriers to infrastructure deployment.
Yet tall towers are just one of a number of options used by carriers today for their wireless networks, said Murray, who was also testifying on behalf of the Wireless Infrastructure Association. Murray, whose company is based in Northern Virginia, cited a distributed antenna system in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel as well as one in the tunnels of the Washington Metro system. “Networks today are a combination of solutions,” he said.
Seeking suggestions on how to ease broadband deployment, Murray and Competitive Carrier Association President/CEO Steven Berry suggested streamlining the permitting process for rights-of-way for tower siting on both public and federal land. “I can tell you horror stories,” said Berry, specifically citing a carrier that tried to get approval to build infrastructure on U.S. Park Service land. The allotted processing time expired before the Park Service approved the permit, even after an extension, he said.
“We’re learning that agencies’ master plans,” like that of the Department of Defense or the Bureau of Land Management, “are 20-year plans. Letting them know that broadband deployment is an acceptable activity on federal property would help,” said Berry.
March 23, 2017
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