President Donald Trump said he would nominate Jessica Rosenworcel to fill a Democratic seat on the FCC. The expected nomination was applauded throughout the nation. Rosenworcel served as a commissioner until the end of 2016 when lawmakers failed to take up her renomination under former President Barack Obama, handing Republicans a 2-1 majority on the five-seat commission which has allowed …
Orange is the new knack – for selling tower siting sizzle and not the steak
After a 10-year effort to improve public safety communications in Douglas County and Highlands Ranch, Colo., erection of a 150-foot public safety radio tower began yesterday morning after sales and use tax funding became available and a private developer said it would assist in providing a location for an artistic structure – a monopole with two side-mounted omni antennas gingerly …
Crown socks Southeastern N.Y. with multiple rights of way-involved lawsuits
Crown Castle filed another lawsuit in federal court on Thursday against the Town of Oyster Bay, N.Y. seeking to have its permits reissued to install microcells in residential neighborhoods. The action follows a recently filed complaint against the Town of Hempstead as reported by Wireless Estimator on Friday where Crown Castle sued over a consultant’s delaying tactics and high fees …
Crown sues Hempstead, N.Y. over consultant’s delay tactics and high fees for DAS nodes
National DAS-provider and tower owner Crown Castle has brought suit against the Town of Hempstead, N.Y., alleging that the Town unlawfully delegated its review authority to a third-party consultant for 14 initial applications for authorization to install, operate and maintain DAS facilities in the Town’s public rights of way. Crown, in its complaint, said that the consultant, Center for Municipal …
CCA slams AT&T again, this time asking FCC to reject FiberTower spectrum buy
The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) believes that AT&T will not allow their carrier members to remain competitive if the FCC allows AT&T to acquire bankrupt FiberTower’s 650 terminated licenses. In a filing with the FCC Wednesday, CCA said that instead of the planned acquisition, the FCC should recover and re-auction the unconstructed spectrum in the 39 GHz band, and potentially …
Industry applauds OSHA / FCC’s long-awaited Communication Tower Best Practices guide
The FCC and OSHA today released their Communication Tower Best Practices guide following a concerted joint effort on industry safety when the two agencies began the initiative with a workshop in Washington, D.C. in 2014 and continued the effort with another group of industry stakeholders in 2016. Although the guide is advisory in nature, and is not a standard or regulation, …
FCC Enforcement Bureau adds another three violations to broadcaster’s tally
It is likely that Cortaro Broadcasting, a Coolidge Ariz. company that owns, KCKY-AM, a Spanish language religious broadcaster, might hold the title for operating a small station with the most FCC violations when last week Cortaro was cited for not having a property fence, and the gates in both individual tower fences were held closed with a loose loop of chain …
NATE’s in O’Rielly’s corner on common sense obstruction marking provisions
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) today applauded FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly for his common sense approach to the tower obstruction marking provisions currently confronting the communications tower industry. The broad-based tower marking requirements were part of the FAA Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016 and mandate improved physical markings and/or lighting on towers ranging from 50’ – …
Commissioner O’Rielly addresses tower lighting, crews and siting concerns at WIA
FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly took Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) conference attendees yesterday in Orlando, Fla. down a somewhat pessimistic two-year overview of troubling issues he addressed in 2015 before WIA in Hollywood, Fla. One key concern he had was that In 2014, the Commission eliminated unnecessary tower marking and lighting burdens on the industry while ensuring the safety of aircraft, …
Houston: We’ve got a problem with Chairman Pai; MasTec takes its firings to the Supremes
The mayor of the City of Houston has taken FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai to task for statements that he made that they state are inaccurate and they want his fellow commissioners to publicly make a correction. City Mayor Sylvester Turner said that Pai’s statement that the city subjected wireless network companies to onerous reviews for purposes of meeting historic preservation …
FCC vote kicks off battle over regulation of the nation’s internet
In a 2-1 vote, the FCC today moved forward with a process that could lift Title II broadband classification, the legal footing for the commission’s 2015 net neutrality rules. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stressed that Thursday’s vote is just “the beginning of the process.” In prepared remarks, he stated that the commission would “follow the facts and law where they …
FCC chief chides AT&T for 911 outage that could have been prevented
Ajit Pai said today that AT&T’s 911 outage in March could have been prevented if the carrier had implemented network reliability best practices. On March 8, 12,539 Americans who were AT&T customers tried to call 911. But they couldn’t reach emergency services because of a nationwide outage of AT&T’s VoLTE 911 network. When they placed that call, they heard fast …
Mobilitie musters another siting snafu requiring removal of its tower
When the the City of Goliad, Tex. informed Mobilitie that they had illegally installed a 120-foot tower in their right of way off of West Fannin St. on April 2 and they were to remove it no later than May 1, a Mobilitie spokesperson informed them that it could take a couple of weeks since they were constrained by safety …
Simon and DeBroux will chair new FCC broadband deployment working groups
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has appointed members to serve on two Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) working groups. The Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure Working Group will be chaired by Ken Simon, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Crown Castle, and Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers Working Group’s chairman is Robert DeBroux, Director, Public Policy and Federal Regulatory Affairs, …
Broadband investment heads south, 5G Michigan trials soar successfully
Samsung, Cisco deliver multivendor end-to-end 5G trial with Verizon Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and Cisco, in partnership with Verizon, today announced the successful deployment of the first multi-vendor end-to-end 5G trial network in the field, which took place in Ann Arbor, a suburb of metropolitan Detroit, Mich. Earlier this year, Verizon announced plans for customer trials of 5G technology for …
Report: Sprint approved ‘trial’ for Mobilitie to build sites without regulatory compliance
A humorous anecdote heard in siting corridors is that distributed antenna system (DAS) providers are secretly funding Mobilitie so that they can look good in comparison since the California-based developer is well-known for installing DAS poles in community rights of way without getting permission. Their typical answer, when discovered, is that there was a misunderstanding with a zoning or permitting …
Crane collapse takes the life of a 51-year-old Texas industry worker
Update: April 26, 2017 – The cell tower compound that RMCI’s crane toppled into is owned by Crown Castle International. April 25, 2017 – A 51-year-old industry worker was killed yesterday afternoon when a crane tipped on its side in downtown Dallas, Tex., crashing into a cell tower compound in the 1700 block of Arts Place, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue …
CTIA shrinks the size of a pizza box to get the FCC to deliver small cells
Last Tuesday, CTIA Regulatory Affairs executives Brian Josef and Kara Romagnino pitched Rachael Bender, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s Acting Legal Advisor, with their newly minted presentation on key reforms that would be beneficial for the agency to enact to ensure that America can build its 5G infrastructure. It’s likely that Bender fully understood their presentation on new opportunities and challenges …
Robber who threatened to kill NYPD captain gets first taste of justice with $404K FCC fine
The FCC issued a notice of apparent liability (NAL) on Friday to a 20-year-old New York resident for operating a radio transmitter on frequencies that the Commission has licensed to the New York Police Department, fining him $404,166. And although the enforcement message was clear, collecting the fine is uncertain. Following procedure, a copy of the NAL might have been …
Profitable range of reimbursable repacking costs offered contractors, engineers, suppliers
Full power and Class A Broadcasters that have been reassigned to new channels must submit their reimbursement estimates for their repacking costs by July 12 using a form released Thursday by the FCC. The stations must include engineering, legal, equipment, installation, and other costs reasonably incurred to complete a required channel change. And for those participants in the repacking efforts, …
