The Chilean Constitutional Tribunal (TC) has approved a law that regulates the installation of towers and antennas for mobile telephony. The decision was announced last Wednesday and now telecom companies need to modify their towers to be in compliance with the law. For example, they must withdraw them from sensitive areas.
The government says the project’s goal is to prevent the indiscriminate placement of towers and to solve critical antenna situations. The new regulation sets different types of authorizations and new standards for maximum electromagnetic emissions and saturation in certain areas. The new rule also empowers municipalities and communities with greater power to decide, for example, where to place a tower.
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Last January, the bill was approved 33 – 0 by the Chilean Senate, following a decade of discussion. At that time, RCR Wireless News interviewed some key telecom players to understand the pros and cons of the bill. Many agreed that the bill promotes improvements in reducing the visual impact of antennas in urban environments and encourages co-location, but also said it might significantly increase the cost of building towers.
The regulations include rules on where towers and antennas can be placed and restrictions on tower height. One of the Chilean mobile telephone association Atelmo’s concerns was related to where structures can be built, since the new regulations prohibit constructing new structures in certain areas or the removal of existing towers, which could create problems for coverage and the quality of service provided.
The new law allows for communities to choose whether they prefer a camouflaged tower that reduces the visual impact of the site or accept a standard tower structure that includes an obligation by the tower builder to compensate the community for up to 30% of the value of the tower. This would increase the cost to build traditional towers, though telecom players are still trying to figure out if the 30% requirement also includes network equipment placed on that tower.
“The bill gives community participation to enable the installation of antennas, opening places to receive compensation for the installation of towers,” Juan Gnius, VP at Signals Telecom Consulting, noted. “You can apply for tax rebates for property owners near antennas as a result of a tax revaluation.”
However, the co-location requirement could be good news for infrastructure companies. For the co-location aspects of the law, those carriers that choose to not partner with other operators would be forced to pay the equivalent of 50% of the replacement value of the tower, 20% if the tower is camouflaged.
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