Proposed Over-the-Air Device Rules Opposed by Local Government, Real Estate Groups
Local government and real estate groups said the FCC should rethink an NPRM on updating a rule for over-the-air reception devices with an eye toward spurring 5G deployment. Commissioners approved the OTARD NPRM 5-0 in April and comments were due Monday night in docket 19-71. Wireless ISPs in particular sought the rule change.
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The Wireless ISP Association hopes for quick action, President Claude Aiken told us Tuesday. “When a small provider spends more money on legal and permitting fees than on the actual deployment itself, something is very wrong,” Aiken said. “Thankfully, updates to the FCC’s OTARD rules would right that balance, ensuring that legitimate concerns like public safety are addressed, while allowing small providers to quickly and more cost-effectively reach customers with high-speed fixed wireless service.”
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, some major cities including Los Angeles, Boston and Dallas, and other local governments jointly questioned the need for a rule change. “The Commission has always predicated its prior expansion of the OTARD Rule on a review of the marketplace to identify a market need to justify such expansion," they said: It's "extremely disappointing that the current NPRM deviates from its predecessors in failing to examine the marketplace and inquire as to the need for Commission action.” The record offers “few if any complaints about the deployment of OTARDs or the need for an expansion of the rules,” the local governments said.
The proposed rules would provide “a broad grant of rights to communications providers,” said the National Association of Realtors, National Real Estate Investors Association, Real Estate Roundtable and related groups. “The proposed amendments would inadvertently increase the risks and costs to owners of leased property, thereby interfering with existing market mechanisms and harming deployment in ways that the NPRM does not consider or intend.”
NATOA, the National League of Cities and National Association of Regional Councils had concerns. They said the commission’s proposed approach “represents a serious misinterpretation of its statutory authority, would unnecessarily harm local governments, and is unlikely to achieve the desired goal of increasing broadband access for un- and underserved residents.”
“Current OTARD rules prioritize important private property rights protections for community association common property and provide appropriate means for community association residents to receive wireless communications at their residence as Congress intended,” the Community Associations Institute commented.
But industry groups supported the proposed rule change.
Update rules as 5G is deployed nationwide, CTIA said. “Hundreds of thousands of new antennas must be installed to accommodate not only the rapidly growing demand for wireless services, but also to supply capacity for 5G technologies.”
Starry supports action on the rules. “Fixed wireless can provide a last mile broadband connection at much lower cost than comparable wireline networks, and with significantly less disruption to the cities, towns, and communities in which they are deployed,” the WISP said.
“The Commission appropriately seeks to modernize its OTARD rule so that the zoning laws and homeowners’ association restrictions can no longer prohibit hub and relay antennas at residences,” WISPA said. “This action would be consistent with the intent of the OTARD rule, which was designed to ensure that consumers have access to a broad range of video programming services, and to foster competition among providers.”