Zoning opposition by a James Valentine-supported group has temporarily blocked city approval of a dozen personal communications services site permits sought by Pacific Bell Mobile Services in San Diego.
Opponents are supporters of Code Division Multiple Access technology that say the Global System for Mobile communications technology chosen by Pac Bell Mobile is unsafe. Pac Bell Mobile sees the Valentine group’s move as cheap, inappropriate politics. CDMA and GSM technologies are vying for equipment market share.
“This is an attempt to slow down the deployment of a competitive technology,” said Terrence Valeski, vice president of marketing and business development for Pac Bell Mobile. “Those supporting CDMA are not prepared to go to market. Competition in the real world of commerce is fine, but I believe this is back-alley stuff. This is a competitive, commercial issue that needs to be directed to the marketplace,” Valeski said.
The San Diego City Council considered 12 conditional-use permits for Pac Bell PCS sites at its Feb. 13 meeting, but postponed the decision until March 19 after hearing complaints from the California Communications Council, a non-profit entity funded by the Arlington, Va.-based Wireless Communications Council.
Valentine founded the Wireless Communications Council, is an investor in a CDMA PCS business and has launched several high-volume attacks on GSM. The California Communications Council told the city it was concerned about health and safety and electromagnetic interference between hearing aids and GSM handsets.
“The city should not be party to the deployment of a technology which discriminates against the hearing impaired of today and the hearing impaired of tomorrow,” said John Kern, on behalf of the California Communications Council.
Pac Bell intends to deploy a GSM network covering 31 million pops in the Los Angeles/San Diego and San Francisco major trading areas. Pac Bell Mobile hopes to have the San Diego network in place in time for the Republican National Convention there in August.
“We’ve been targeted in part because of the National Convention,” Valeski said, speculating that opponents would like to see Pac Bell fail to meet the buildout deadline for such a high-profile event.
Pac Bell Mobile has submitted 66 applications for PCS sites within the city of San Diego, seeking roof-top, ground-mounted and interior-located installations. About three quarters of the projects are considered minor and are being reviewed by the Development Services Department.
The 12 site requests considered major were all approved by the City Planning Commission earlier this year. San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory recommended the council grant the permits, despite opposition.
“It is important to note here that the council’s decision is to grant or deny permits for the placement of antennas. There has been no evidence to support that the antennas affect hearing aid users,” McGrory said.
The California Communications Council said its primary concern was health and technology issues.
“If the city were to permit this technology for any project, the liability question would certainly have to be explored*…*It should be noted that Qualcomm’s CDMA technology, a California and a San Diego product, does not cause these same problems for the hearing impaired,” Kern said.
In the next month, the city will research health and safety standards, look into studies done on electromagnetic hearing aid interference and the extent of the council’s authority.
