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HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018 FCC DECLARATORY RULING PROMOTING DEPLOYMENT OF SMALL WIRELESS FACILITIES

5G IS COMING BE PREPARED

Small wireless facilities are defined as facilities that meet each of the following conditions: 

• The facilities—

(i) Are mounted on structures 50 feet or less in height including their antennas as defined in § 1.1320(d); or 

(ii) Are mounted on structures no more than 10 percent taller than other adjacent structures; or 

(iii) Do not extend existing structures on which they are located to a height of more than 50 feet or by more than 10 percent, whichever is greater;

• Each antenna associated with the deployment … is no more than three cubic feet in volume 
• All other wireless equipment associated with the structure, including the wireless equipment associated with the antenna and any pre-existing associated equipment on the structure, is no more than 28 cubic feet in volume …
• The facilities do not require antenna structure registration … 
• The facilities are not located on Tribal lands… 
• The facilities do not result in human exposure to radiofrequency radiation in excess of the applicable safety standards...

Municipal Fees

The FCC presumes that the following fees would not be prohibited by Section 253 or Section 332(c)(7): 

(a) $500 for non-recurring fees, including a single up-front application that includes up to five Small Wireless Facilities, with an additional $100 for each Small Wireless Facility beyond five, or $1,000 for non-recurring fees for a new pole (i.e., not a collocation) intended to support one or more Small Wireless Facilities, and 

(b) $270 per Small Wireless Facility per year for all recurring fees, including any possible ROW access fee or fee for attachment to municipally-owned structures in the ROW.

Localities are limited from charging higher fees above this level, but it is possible by showing that such fees nonetheless comply with the limits imposed by Section 253—that is, that they are (1) a reasonable approximation of costs, (2) those costs themselves are reasonable, and (3) are non-discriminatory.

Shot Clocks

Timely action required. A siting authority that fails to act on a siting application on or before the shot clock date for the application … is presumed not to have acted within a reasonable period of time. 

Presumptively reasonable periods of time—

• Review of an application to collocate a Small Wireless Facility using an existing structure: 60 days.
• Review of an application to collocate a facility other than a Small Wireless Facility using an existing structure: 90 days. 
• Review of an application to deploy a Small Wireless Facility using a new structure: 90 days.
• Review of an application to deploy a facility other than a Small Wireless Facility using a new structure: 150 days. 

For collocation of Small Wireless Facilities, the Shot Clock “resets” after receipt of the requested additional information.  Therefore, it “effectively [gives] the siting authority an additional 60 days to act on the Small Wireless Facilities collocation application”.  

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