WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and the United South and Eastern Tribes have agreed to a set of voluntary best practices for siting towers on lands of cultural significance to some Native American Tribes.
USET represents 24 tribes from Maine to Florida to Texas. The FCC and USET signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year.
The document is meant to streamline the tower-siting process but the wireless industry, which was not involved in the initial drafting process, still has some concerns.
“The voluntary best practices are a win-win-win for the tribes, the applicants and the FCC. We have worked hard to carefully balance the needs of tribes and the wireless industry. If everyone works together, the infrastructure necessary to bring wireless communications throughout the country can be built quickly, without harm to sites of religious and cultural importance to the tribes and without unnecessary FCC involvement,” said FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
The industry, however, is dubious that the voluntary best practices will be a win for them.
“Since both the best practices agreement and the tribal participation sections of the nationwide programmatic agreement are new to this process, no one knows if or how well they might work together, or where the major problems might be. Everyone hopes for the best, but fears that it might not go that smoothly,” said John Clark, counsel for the Tower Siting Policy Alliance.
The wireless industry has expressed concern in the past that Native American tribes, which are considered sovereign nations, do not respond to requests to site towers on lands of importance to them. The FCC acknowledged those concerns but said that as sovereign nations, tribes were not required to respond.
“The answer lies in why tribes haven’t responded to industry’s inquiries and letters in the past. Tribes don’t have a relationship with industry,” Kris Montieth, deputy chief of the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, told RCR Wireless News. “The view of the tribes is that the FCC has improperly delegated its responsibilities to industry so they are not going to respond to industry.”
Clark said that numerous consultations could slow the process. “Many concerns remain about such things as the lengthy waiting periods for tribal response, apparent inconsistencies between the NPA and the best practices, the ability of the FCC to manage multiple simultaneous consultations if numerous tribes request or don’t respond and the lack of real tools to deal with excessive delay or breakdown of the process.”
The wireless industry is not required to live by the best practices although it is strongly encouraged to do so.
“The best practices described in this document are recommendations. Failure to follow these best practices does not by itself establish lack of good faith to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act or the FCC’s rules. These best practices are not intended to discourage tribes and applicants from entering into alternative procedures that better suit their particular relationship. Adherence to these best practices may, however, be used to demonstrate a good-faith effort to comply with applicable requirements. In evaluating compliance with the commission’s rules, the FCC will examine the totality of the circumstances and the reasonableness of the methods employed,” reads the best practices document.
