What appears to be a macrocell attached to a utility pole.

So in this article about Verizon attachments to Arizona Power (APS) utility poles in the Phoenix market, it is interesting to see how Verizon is installing a 6-panel array on top of utility poles. Also interesting is that Verizon is leasing ground space adjacent to the pole from the nearby landowner for their equipment space. Given the size of the equipment space, it appears that this is a macrocell.  However, the APS representative states that this is being treated as a pole attachment under the FCC pole attachment rate schedule.  I am surprised that APS allowed this large of an installation to be placed on the pole for the nominal FCC pole attachment rate.

It is hard to tell whether the antennas would fit within a 6′ cubic space that is allocated within the Arizona small cell law for antennas.   There is a better photo of the equipment and pole inside the article.   The City of Phoenix is pretty favorable to pole attachments in general, so whether it meets the 6 cubic feet of space limitation or not may be immaterial.  However, in other jurisdictions, this installation may not be approved administratively under the state law.

Ken Schmidt

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