WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association remains concerned proposed guidelines for siting wireless antenna on National Park Service lands will not adequately protect sensitive commercial information about wireless carriers’ future business plans, CTIA said in comments filed with the NPS recently.
CTIA “vehemently opposes disclosure of such information until the NPS demonstrates a clear need for the proprietary information and the ability to afford it adequate protection from competitors’ requests for disclosure,” the comments read.
CTIA has been working with NPS since 1996, and before that with the Department of the Interior, on rules for the most efficient and least intrusive method for siting antennas on federal lands. NPS issued a revised proposal for guidelines in March, with final rules expected sometime this summer.
The revised guidelines accept many of the proposals CTIA has made for the last two years, the group says. The group, however, remains concerned the guidelines need to be more definitive, including more explicit rules on how proprietary information will be used. NPS does not provide written guidance on how park superintendents should treat proprietary information even though CTIA has requested that procedures be established to protect the confidentiality of such information.
The proposed guidelines call for carriers to submit propagation maps showing the carrier’s coverage area within a 15-mile radius and its proposed buildout plans for that area within the next five years. CTIA claims the NPS “has yet to provide any rationale as to why it needs propagation information for a 15-mile radius or a carrier’s five-year buildout plans for the same area.” Bell Atlantic Mobile, in similar comments filed, suggests the 15-mile radius can be reduced, “especially in urban areas where it is clearly excessive.”
Bell Atlantic Mobile has been in an ongoing battle with NPS officials over the siting of antennas in Rock Creek Park, an urban Washington D.C., park. Bell Atlantic Mobile’s complete comments represent lessons learned from that experience. For example, in addition to requesting protection for proprietary information, Bell Atlantic Mobile wants NPS to state affirmatively that the processing of applications currently pending “should be a high management priority and a specific expedited schedule should be set for completion of that processing.”
