A Tale of Two Small Cell Providers – Part Two
Last year in April, we wrote about how Crown Castle and Mobilitie respectively approached the City of Orlando regarding small cells. In that post, we described how each company approached the application process and why the City approved the Crown Castle small cells while it determined that the Mobilitie applications were incomplete.
We recently came across some data from Montgomery County, MD. If you have followed wireless siting news, there have been a number of stories about Montgomery County and the opposition for small cells from NIMFYs.
Interestingly, the data shows a similar story happening in Montgomery County as that which happened in the City of Orlando. Of the 171 small cell or DAS installations submitted by Crown Castle, 81 have been approved or recommended for approval. 90 are under review currently. Of these 171 poles proposed by Crown, only 20 are new poles as opposed to installations on existing utility structures. The average height of all Crown poles/antennas is 28 feet. Another interesting statistic regarding the Crown DAS poles is that 26 of them have two carriers coming out of the ground. Almost all include Verizon- but some include T-Mobile.
Mobilitie has taken a different tact and not surprisingly, NONE of the 141 small cells that Mobilitie has applied for have been recommended for approval as of the date of the file we reviewed which appears to be October of last year. The average height of the Mobilitie poles- 66 feet. The number of new poles vs attachments to existing poles is 117 to 24 respectively.
Lastly, Verizon has submitted 15 small cell applications of their own.
Below is a map we created in Google Maps showing the various DAS and small cell providers and the submitted infrastructure. You can click on the individual points for further details on who is where and whether the sites have been approved. (here is a link to the map itself in Google Maps)
2 thoughts on “A Tale of Two Small Cell Providers – Part Two”
I am working with a city on the process and policies surrounding the implementation of Small Cell Technology into the communities. I have read about how Montgomery County handled the providers in the past. I would appreciate any assistance you can provide to any public sources for information on
Montgomery County’s approach.
Can you provide any insights into teshes cities plans to change its existing policies? Is there someone I can connect with at these to gain an understanding of how the new FCC ruling is affecting the current policies?
Thomas, Sorry for the delay in responding here. As you can tell, we don’t check the comments on the blog as often as we should. I will reach out via email to you and see if you still would like to talk.