FCC preps a bipartisan bigfoot for cities and counties

12 March 2017 by Steve Blum
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But only the bad actors. Honest.

Local governments will have even less to say about how and where broadband infrastructure will be built. That was the clear and bipartisan message from two members of the Federal Communications Commission when they testified in front of a U.S. senate committee on Wednesday. Michael O’Rielly, who reliably takes conventional republican positions, went straight for the jugular

Standing in the way of greater Internet access nationwide are barriers imposed by state, local, and tribal entities. These range from maintaining difficult permitting and approval processes, attempts to extract enormous sums for tower siting and access to rights-of-ways, and efforts to establish government sponsored networks accompanied by favorable land, tax, and approval procedures. While the vast number of communities see the benefit of broadband deployment and welcome providers seeking to serve their citizens, there are bad actors that will likely require preemptive measures by the Commission. This problem will become even more acute as providers seek to deploy the next generation, or 5G wireless services, that will bring greater capacity, higher speeds and lower latency, but will also require many more wireless tower and antenna siting approvals. I realize that preempting local community decisions is a difficult topic to contemplate, but it has become necessary and appropriate for the Commission to exercise authority provided by Congress to address this situation.

Mignon Clyburn, who stands firmly in the democratic mainstream, was more diplomatic, but just as clear

We recognized the need for efficient and streamlined processing of siting applications as well as localities’ interests in preserving the aesthetics of their communities and ensuring the safety of their citizens. Indeed, as I have said before, approving applications to site antennas and other infrastructure are difficult policy challenges for local governments…

I believe the Commission has a unique role to play in facilitating discussions and dialogue between industry and local communities about the benefits and challenges of small cell deployment.

There’s no practical difference, though, between exercising “authority provided by Congress” and “facilitating discussions and dialogue”. Either way it means the FCC will be step in once again and preempt state and local broadband policy.