A few weeks ago I gave a presentation to the Florida Municipal Electric Association, that I reworked here to make it a bit broader and applicable for the majority of cases in the United States.
It is primarily about small cells and considerations that private landowners/exempt public landowners should have when considering small cell leases. Prior to State Small Cell Legislation, it was a bit of the wild west. Wireless service providers or their infrastructure companies were trying to claim that they were utilities, with some going so far as erecting poles overnight without permits. Municipalities and counties were all over the board in their approaches to small cells.
You can find the entire slideshow here. To get a taste of the presentation see the short video and comments below.
Really large pizza boxes
The industry pushed small cell state legislation by making ridiculous and misleading claims like this- that small cells are the size of a “pizza box” all while pushing legislation that allowed them to put 6 cubic feet of equipment on the top of the pole and 28 cubic feet at the base. That’s a lot of pizza boxes.
What happens when 4-6 wireless companies deploy small cells separately
This graphic shows what happens when multiple companies each seek to deploy their own poles at 200’ apart. While the wireless companies try to paint a very pretty picture of the distance that their small cells can cover, they very carefully omit to share that small cells (especially fixed wireless) are sensitive to line of sight issues and other degradation of signal from foliage and buildings and even weather. To resolve these issues, they overbuild the numbers of sites to address these issues and capacity issues as well.
To see our upper-level recommendations regarding evaluating small cell leasing for public utilities and coops in the wake of state small cell legislation please see the presentation in its entirety.
If you are interested in learning more about these and other recommendations, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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Hello! I live in Gig Harbor WA, where our mayor and city council are unanimously opposed to the irresponsible deployment of 5G equipment and the silencing of city government and citizen concerns. I am part of a city-approved committee whose mission is to inform and educate our citizens about the impending rollout and the FCC's regulations.
I appreciate the information you provide on your blog. Do you mind if we link to your stories and also re-post some of your very helpful videos?
PS. There's a typo in this headline: What happens whet 4-6 wireless companies deploy small cells separately
Appreciate the comment. You are more than welcome to link to the stories- repost videos. Thanks for the heads up on the title issue. Will correct.