5G wireless pits cities against telecoms and their friends in the FCC

Many people are worked up over so-called small cells, the next generation of wireless technology that telecommunications firms and cell-tower builders want to place on streetlights and utility poles throughout neighborhoods nationwide. The small cells come with a host of equipment, including antennas, power supplies, electric meters, switches, cabling and boxes often strapped to the sides of poles. Some may have refrigerator-sized containers on the ground. And they will be placed about every 500 or so feet along residential streets and throughout business districts. Telecom companies say the cells will be both unobtrusive and safe, and insist the technology is needed to bring faster internet speeds required by a more connected world. But residents like King and some wireless experts say the cells could reduce property values, pose safety risks and forever sully the appearance of cities — if not properly regulated. From Germantown to Lincoln, Nebraska, from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Seattle, small cells are poised to spring up like mushrooms, with estimates ranging from a few hundred thousand to a few million more nationwide within seven years. Thousands are being erected right now. Cities and counties figured they could put proposals for small cells through the usual zoning, permitting and citizen input processes that other cell towers and most brick-and-mortar proposals go through. But they may be mistaken. Politically-connected telecommunications giants say that sort of local regulation isn’t appropriate for these sleeker, smaller cells, and they want to cut local governments’ say in the process. They contend they have the law on their side, but perhaps more important, they’ve got powerful friends in state capitols — and in the corridors of power in Washington. Friends like the Federal Communications Commission, which is considering rules that would drastically limit local governments’ regulations for the placement and appearance of the small cells, and how much they can charge for them.