The City of Knoxville, TN recently got “smarter.” The city of roughly 200,000 entered into an agreement with CNX, a provider of broadband master planning and program management services to provide small cell infrastructure, reported SmartCitiesWorld.net.

CNX will provide wireless and telecommunications consultation services including reviewing existing guidelines and regulations for small cell installations on city rights-of-way. According to CNX regional director, Hunter Stuart, “We are proud to partner with the City of Knoxville to help them prepare their city for small cell deployment. By taking steps to inventory their publicly owned assets and modernize their ordinances, the city will be well positioned to deploy 5G services more quickly.”

CNX is expected to deliver a full plan by March 31, 2018, and work is already underway with the city staff to develop a comprehensive and equitable city-wide policy to help streamline requests for cell towers, micro-cells and distributed antenna systems on publicly owned assets, reported SmartCitiesWorld.net.

“The City of Knoxville will benefit from CNX’s expertise,” said Jim Hagerman, city director of engineering. “As telecommunication companies move forward with small cell installations, our emphasis is on Knoxville being a smart city.”

February 9, 2018