American Personal Communications has cracked a deal with Baltimore Gas & Electric that will allow APC to put full-sector antenna configurations on electric transmission towers.
The relationship could help APC leap over some of cellular’s long-time site acquisition hurdles-zoning board battles. Electric utilities are well entrenched in communities, with control of right-of-way properties and towers located a fraction of a mile apart.
“This is the first time a wireless company has done this in the United States,” said Al Jenkins, director of real estate management for APC. “We went to BG&E with our ideas because the utilities are just becoming entrepreneurial. (L.M.) Ericsson and Nortel (Northern Telecom Ltd.) helped us test it for electromagnetic interference, then BG&E helped design the mounting brackets. In PCS, you have to use every single site available to you to compete with entrenched cellular,” Jenkins said.
APC was awarded a pioneer’s preference license in late 1993 to provide personal communications services in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Md., metropolitan trading area. Since then, APC has acquired more than 400 sites that Jenkins says are leased, zoned and soon-to-be constructed properties.
“We have innovative ways of dealing with groups and have been successful. You have to give them an incentive to do business with you,” he said.
APC said it acquired several school rooftop sites from the District of Columbia public school system.
“They need money. I met with the superintendent and told him I’d go to the neighborhood, be willing to do seminars and that we could help get jobs in the wireless industry and we’d help the vo-tech program,” Jenkins said. PCS service for school security sweetened the deal.
That doesn’t mean APC hasn’t had its share of community dissension. Fairfax County, Va., has 17 APC antenna applications on hold, according to county records. In some cases, the requests have been deferred indefinitely because of opposition or the possibility of opposition.
Because wireless telecom is considered a public utility, operators must apply to local authorities for permission to place antennas on any property, even if permission is granted by the landowner.
Jenkins said applications may be on hold in some counties because APC has inundated authorities with tower applications. But if there is community resistance, PCS technology gives APC a special playing card, he said. Residents seem to respond to the idea that PCS is a new, all-digital technology “that no one else has,” Jenkins said.
“There’s nothing you can do to resolve some people’s feelings, but we found a way to talk to them,” he said.
In many states, placing an antenna on residential zoned property requires a special permit because such use doesn’t fit into residential zoning parameters. And if community leaders don’t want the antenna, approval can idle indefinitely. Congress now is crafting legislation that would require local entities to negotiate with wireless operators.
PCS operators building out sites are not encountering anything their cellular predecessors haven’t already seen. Cellular One has had its hands full for more than a year in Tarrytown, N.Y. Residents opposed a plan to put nine cellular antennas on the roof of an existing building in a commercial district, 300 feet from the nearest residence. Citizens expressed a fear for health and safety. The village board, unable to resolve the situation, adopted numerous moratoriums. Cellular One sued the village and, although the court instructed the village to allow the installation of antennas, the lawsuit is still pending.
“The net impact of a moratorium was to stall, whether that was the intent or not,” said William S. Null, an attorney for Cellular One in New York handling the Tarrytown matter. Null said he is skeptical about the effectiveness of congressional legislation regarding tower siting unless it contains language calling for more than “fairness” on the part of the local governing boards.
“Fairness is subjective. There should be objective standards. A federal policy would make sense,” Null said.
The U.S. Postal Service has aggressively pursued antenna leasing agreements with wireless companies for more than a year, resulting in about 14 signed agreements nationwide.