Introduction-
- “Industry Airs Small Cell Grievances, Suggests Solutions,” by J. Sharpe Smith, AGL Media Group, March 16, 2017, http://www.aglmediagroup.com/tag/mobilitie/; “Comment Sought on Streamlining Deployment of Small Cell Infrastructure by Improving Wireless Facility Siting Policies: Mobilitie LLC Petition for Declaratory Ruling (FCC 16-1427, WT Docket # 16-421),” December 22, 2016, https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-1427A1.pdf; and “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry in the Matter of Accelerating Wireless Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment,” Federal Communications Commission (FCC 17-38), released April 21, 2017, http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0421/FCC-17-38A1.pdf.
Back to Module 29, Introduction
Topic 1-
- “Comment Sought on Streamlining Deployment of Small Cell Infrastructure by Improving Wireless Facilities Siting Policies; Mobilitie, LLC Petition for Declaratory Ruling,” Federal Communications Commission, December 22, 2016, https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-1427A1.pdf.
- “Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee,” Federal Communications Commission, https://www.fcc.gov/broadband-deployment-advisory-committee.
- The five working groups are (1) Model Code for Municipalities, (2) Model Code for States, (3) Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure, (4) Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers, and (5) Streamlining Federal Siting. To review the press release, public notices, and the list of the first twenty-nine appointees, see “FCC Announces the Membership and the First Meeting of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee,” Federal Communications Commission, April 6, 2017, http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0406/DA-17
-328A1.pdf; “FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Announces Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Members, Working Groups, and Leadership,” http://transition.fcc.gov
/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0406/DOC-344285A1.pdf; and “New Docket Established for Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Accelerating Broadband Deployment,” April 6, 2017, http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases
/Daily_Business/2017/db0406/DA-17-327A1.pdf.At the second BDAC meeting, four of the five working groups gave progress reports. Thus far, the four operating groups had focused on identifying fundamental challenges to overcome, guidelines for their work, and creating subgroups to isolate detailed topics being addressed. Each group specified the next steps in its work process at the meeting. The formation of the fifth workgroup, Streamlining Federal Siting, was announced on August 3, 2017. The Model Code for Municipalities Working Group had established two subgroups, one to review existing local codes and another to articulate broadband deployment aspirations for model municipal codes. The Model Code for States Working Group had formed three subgroups. These included a subgroup to study the parameters and obstacles regarding the utilization of state-wide broadband deployment agreements, a subgroup to address application standards to support streamlined access to rights of way, poles, ducts, and conduits, and a subgroup to develop rural-specific approaches for broadband deployment, including economic incentives. The Removing State and Local Barriers Working Group had enlisted one subgroup to categorize barriers to rapid broadband deployment through data collection and analysis. The Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure Working Group had divided into four subgroups. The subgroups will study and make recommendations specific to 1.) rates and fees, 2.) methods and practice, 3.) timelines and process, and 4.) transparency and other infrastructure options including facility reuse and commercialization, developing a public database of findings, and considering criteria for federal incentives and preemption. - Section 253(c) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, cited by Mobilitie, LLC, in its Petition for a Declaratory Ruling, states, “Nothing in this section affects the authority of a State or local government to manage the public rights-of-way or require fair and reasonable compensation from telecommunications providers, on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis, for use of public right-of-way on a non-discriminatory basis, if the compensation required is publicly disclosed by such government” (emphasis added). Mobilitie, LLC, has asked that the FCC add more clarity to what the three phrases in italics mean in light of a wide variety of practices being utilized by local governments with respect to small cell deployment; Mobilitie, LLC Petition for Declaratory Ruling in the Matter of Promoting Broadband for All Americans by Prohibiting Excessive Charges for Access to Public Right-of-way, accepted and filed by the Federal Communications Commission, Office of the Secretary, November 15, 2017, referenced in “Comment Sought on Streamlining Deployment of Small Cell Infrastructure by Improving Wireless Facilities Siting Policies; Mobilitie, LLC Petition for Declaratory Ruling,” Federal Communications Commission, December 22, 2016, https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-1427A1.pdf; and in subsequent comments by Mobilitie, LCC, submitted March 8, 2017, https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10308301527658/Mobilitie_PN_Comments.pdf.
Topic 2-
- The National Conference of State Legislatures website posts broadband statutes for states. The last update to this page was on July 16, 2014. See http://www.ncsl.org
/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/broadband-statutes
.aspx. - “Connecticut has a different regulatory system where it has a statewide entity, the Connecticut Siting Council, that grants approval for free-standing tower siting requests after consulting with the local municipalities. The jurisdiction belongs to the Siting Council if it is an attachment to an existing structure, a tower structure or an electric transmission line structure. If it is an attachment to an electric distribution line structure, it falls to the PURA [Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority]. While an attachment to a light pole goes under the local municipality’s authority,” according to Melanie Bachman, Acting Director of the Connecticut Siting Council. “Municipalities, Mobilitie Have a Meeting of the Minds,” by J. Sharpe Smith, AGL Media Group, October 11, 2016, http://www.aglmediagroup.com/tag
/Connecticut-siting-council/. In “Telecommunications Databases,” the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) disclaimer states, “This database is not an exhaustive listing of all wireless telecommunications sites in the state in that it does not include all information about sites not under the jurisdiction of the Siting Council”; http://www.ct.gov/csc/cwp/view.asp?a=895&Q=248312&cscNav=. For further detail regarding Connecticut regulation of wireless facilities, see the PowerPoint presentation, “Connecticut Siting Commission’s jurisdiction and procedure regarding small cell telecommunications facilities,” for the Connecticut Association of Zoning Enforcement Officials, by Melanie Bachman, Acting Executive Director/Staff Attorney of the CSC, October 5, 2016, http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/publications/cazeo100516.pdf. - “Minnesota Utilities Warn Mobilitie about Misrepresentation,” Inside Towers, https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news-minnesota-utilities-warn-mobilitie
-misrepresentation/. - “Overland Park Locals Say ‘Not in My Front Yard’ to New State Law,” Inside Towers, https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news-overland-park-locals-say-not-in
-my-front-yard-to-new-state-law/ and http://www.kslegislature.org/li_2016/b2015
_16/measures/documents/summary_hb_2131_2016.pdf. - J. Sharp Smith, “Laws Promoting Small Cells Blossom in States,” AGL Media Group, http://www.aglmediagroup.com/laws-promoting-small-cells-blossom
-in-states/. - Virginia Acts of Assembly—Chapter, 2017 Reconvened Session, http://lis
.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1282ER2+pdf.
Topic 3-
For instance, the “Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas” between the Federal Communications Commission, the Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has been amended to define microcell facilities by size in recognition that they do not require the same scrutiny as macrocell facilities.
See “Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Announces Execution of First Amendment to the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas,” Federal Communications Commission, August 3, 2016,
https://www.achp.gov/digital-library-section-106-landing/fcc-nationwide-pa-collocation-wireless-antennas-first-amendment
Topic 10-
- For reference, see Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Elevation Certificate, https://www.fema.gov/elevation-certificate; and Federal Emergency Management Agency, “Elevation Certificates: Who Needs Them and Why,” April 2015, http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1428941960043-a8f37b7e3af25f47396bbff04e7bf036/FEMA-HFIAA_ECFActSheet_040715.pdf.