Mobile industry calls for curb on councils' tower powers

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 14:58

IT Policy - Regulation

The Mobile Carriers Forum is calling for new rules that would require local and state governments to review carriers' plans for new tower facilities within 150 days, or let them pass un-amended.

It is taking a lead from the US where the FCC has adopted a declaratory ruling that directs state and local governments to review co-location applications within 90 days and all other base station siting applications within 150 days of the date a carrier submitting a proposal. The FCC says sites that fail to be processed in the new timeframes can be settled in court.

"The ruling reflects a Congressional mandate that requires state and local authorities act 'within a reasonable period of time' on requests for base station siting," MCF said in its newsletter mobile inSite.

"The commission noted that creating a wireless, nationwide broadband system 'will require new physical networks, including many new towers'." This statement will apply equally in Australia.

MCF says the FCC ruling was in response to petition filed by the US Cellular Telecommunications Industry Assocation on behalf of its member companies, frustrated by delays created by local zoning boards. In some cases, applications were taking up to three years to be processed. MCF says their counterparts in Australia are having similar problems.

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