WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) are expected shortly to introduce legislation to use federal antenna siting fees to upgrade local and state wireless 911 systems, an approach that will require lawmakers to beef up enforcement of the 1996 telecom act.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association is part of a coalition of nurses, doctors, police, state officials and the American Automobile Association-the ComCARE Alliance-that sold the siting-911 plan to Congress.
“I am very optimistic that with the broad-based support of the ComCARE Alliance we will be able to pass legislation to upgrade 911 systems around the country this year and in coming years,” said Rob Cohen, a National Strategies Inc. lobbyist who is working closely with industry and Congress on the legislation.
A similar approach by Tauzin last year to fund digital wiretap implementation with federal antenna siting fees got nowhere. A big problem is such a roundabout funding scheme bypasses congressional appropriators, who are very protective of their turf.
Even so, Cohen predicted the breadth of support from medical and public-safety advocates should help to overcome appropriators’ concerns.
CTIA says more than 83,000 911 calls are made daily and 30 million each year from wireless phones. That figure is based on data provided by law enforcement agencies. Most calls are to report auto accidents and roadside conditions.
The 1996 telecom act codified a 1995 executive order of President Clinton directing federal agencies to allow placement of antennas by mobile phone, paging and other telecom service providers on federal property.
But since then, the industry has met foot-dragging resistance from government agencies that feel duty bound to the National Park Service Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and other statutes that run smack up against the new telecommunications law.
Moreover, there is no economic incentive for the National Park Service and others to readily accommodate antenna siting requests from wireless carriers. Why? Government agencies do not receive a cent from fees wireless carriers pay to erect antennas on their property.
The McCain-Tauzin legislation is limited to siting antennas on federal property, which does not have as a large or as powerful constituency as does residential private property. The latter is armed by a potent coalition of homeowners, environmentalists and organized labor.
As such, owing to the controversial nature of the siting issue this election year and the limited number of legislative days, it appears the wireless industry has conceded defeat on getting congressional relief this year on local siting moratoria around the country that stifle the buildout of new personal communications services systems and the expansion of cellular telephone networks.
In the meantime, the wireless industry continues to press Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard to pre-empt excessive antenna siting moratoria.
Kennard, unlike his predecessor and mentor Reed Hundt, believes industry and local and state regulators should try to reach common ground on antenna siting before federal pre-emption is seriously considered.
The coupling of 911 public safety with federal property antenna siting in legislation may indicate that industry is abandoning its aggressive federal pre-emption strategy for one that is kinder and gentler.
