WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission ruled to clear the backlog of antenna-siting applications subject to a nationwide programmatic agreement designed to elicit dialogue among tower owners, mobile-phone carriers, Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations of proposed tower construction covered by the National Historic Preservation Act .
The agency, among other things, embraced an industry approach to deal with situations in which tribes do not respond in a timely manner about planned cell-phone towers and antennas.
The FCC said that once a mobile-phone operator or other tower applicant has made two good-faith efforts over 40 days to obtain a response from a Native American tribe or a Native Hawaiian Organization about a proposed communications transmission facility, the commission will, upon notice from an applicant, send a letter and/or e-mail to the tribe’s or NHO’s designated cultural resources representative seeking an indication of whether the Indian tribe or NHO has an interest in participating in the review of the proposed facility.
If there is not a response within 20 days of the FCC’s communication (and follow-up phone call), the tribe will be deemed to have no interest in the review of the proposed facility, and the antenna/tower applicant will have fulfilled its obligations under federal law.
Likewise, the FCC said antenna/tower applicants’ requirements under the NPA will have been met in tower notifications referred to the agency by applications before Sept. 10 for lack of a response by a Native American tribe or an NHO.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and fellow Republican Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy reluctantly agreed to compromise with Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein in hopes of resolving the antenna-siting-application predicament.
“We supported several proposals intended to resolve this backlog. We continue to believe that siting of towers or antennas is not a federal or federally assisted undertaking, and we would have preferred that the commission reconsider its decision on that issue. We also would have preferred an even more streamlined review process that would have allowed construction to proceed even faster,” Martin and Abernathy said in a joint statement.
Copps and Adelstein issued separate statements more enthusiastically embracing the FCC decision.
Industry groups applauded the FCC’s efforts to speed up the processing of antenna-siting applications.
“By adopting CTIA’s ‘three-strikes’ proposal, the commission advances the goals of the nationwide programmatic agreement to streamline the review of tower-siting applications and protect sites of religious and cultural significance to tribes,” said Steve Largent, president of the cellular trade association.
“We are very pleased with what the FCC released. We’re excited the commission has resolved the backlog and put into place procedures under which there would be finality in the tribal consultation process and regulatory certainty with definite timelines that tower companies can incorporate into their deployment planning,” said Jeremy Denton, a spokesman for PCIA, a trade group representing wireless infrastructure companies.
