FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to make it easier to swap out 4G with 5G and accelerate 5G builds.
“In a nutshell, the 5G upgrade order will make it easier for tower crews to upgrade sites that may have 3G or 4G today to 5G,” Commissioner Brendan Carr, the point person for wireless infrastructure issues, said in a briefing video today posted on Twitter. “This is going to help extend 5G builds, it’s going to add competition, it’s going to boost America’s first responders by giving them even more access to next-gen services, and it’s going to increase speeds.”
“Gerry Lederer, a partner at Best Best & Krieger LLP whose clients include localities, said, “It is difficult to offer any intelligent reaction to a proposal having not yet seen it; still, many in local government will view having less than two weeks to review and comment on the proposal as a showing of bad faith on the part of the Commission and the industry.”- Wireless Infrastructure, RDOF, Spectrum Items Set for June 9 FCC Meeting
New FCC declaratory ruling on the 60-day shot clock specifies how a modification can increase a tower’s height to allow 20 feet of distance between antennas. It clarifies details on equipment that can go on an existing structure and when antenna co-location is allowed and emphasizes the distinction between concealment elements and other conditions of approval.
“This will be better [for] competition,” and make it “easier to add 5G antennas to an existing site,” he told Inside Towers in an interview Tuesday. “It will be good for first responders,” and to “make sure antennas go up efficiently,” he said.
The FCC implemented the rules to make swapping out 3G for 4G antennas easier in 2014. Now, the Commission intends to update them again to make 5G modification approvals faster. “My perspective is, this is about separating the wheat from the chaff. If someone wants to swap out an antenna this is the right track. We’re making it efficient to preserve a state/local review process,” he explained, noting this won’t be a new rule, but rather, the changes get more definitive about current regs on the books. ”
Read the full article by Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief HERE
Read Wireless Infrastructure, RDOF, Spectrum Items Set for June 9 FCC Meeting
