Author: Jeremy Horwitz / Source: VentureBeat
As the FCC moves closer to a vote next week on streamlining 5G network deployments, dozens of mayors and local elected officials called on the commission today to preserve local decision-making in the infrastructure approval process. Writing to the FCC as the Next Century Cities consortium, the officials said that cities have been “unfairly blamed” for slowing wireless development, when their goal has been to adopt “technologies in ways that uniquely fit our communities and residents’ needs.
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This year’s unexpectedly rapid 5G network push has brought a long-simmering debate over local and national wireless hardware approvals to a boil. On the local side, mayors of major cities have portrayed themselves as champions of new technology, tasked with ensuring quality internet access for all of their constituents. The national side includes FCC commissioners and wireless carriers who feel that wireless technology’s march has been slowed by needlessly expensive local reviews and neighborhood-specific aesthetic concerns. Small cells — boxes containing new 5G radio gear — are at the heart of the debate.
In its letter, Next Century Cities defended local decision-making on small cells, noting that citizens “appropriately balk” at 100-foot poles being placed on lawns without recourse, and receiving unjustifiably low compensation for uses of public space. The consortium said that “remarkably low” small cell review…
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