Antenna & Tower Siting  

CTIA Position:
CTIA-The Wireless Association® and the wireless industry are dedicated to providing the highest quality wireless experience to consumers.  Wireless carriers are working tirelessly to build and maintain their network infrastructure to meet the growing demand for advanced wireless technology while providing reliable service.

Wireless plays a crucial role in advancing key Congressional goals, including broadband deployment, universal service, and public safety.  Recognizing that, in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress sought to expedite deployment of wireless to the American public. 

Congress also adopted provisions designed to limit the role of state and local zoning authorities in the tower-siting process to ensure that the zoning process is not a barrier to reasonable deployment of, and competition among, diverse wireless networks.  Wireless carriers need the efficient and timely process of siting wireless facilities from local, state, and federal governments that Congress envisioned in order to bring customers the service they demand.

Key Points:

• Congress took several steps to ensure wireless carriers could build-out their networks within a reasonable period of time, including:
• Prohibiting state and local zoning authorities from taking unreasonably long periods of time to act on tower-related zoning applications.
• Barring decisions that would “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services.”
• With regard to these requirements and others, permitting applicants to seek judicial review within 30 days of a zoning authority’s “action or failure to act.”
• Even the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that Congress enacted these laws to reduce local government impediments imposed on the siting of wireless facilities like antenna towers.
  Substantial Delays by Localities Have Distorted the Balance Established by Congress. CTIA members surveyed indicated that they collectively have more than 3,300 wireless siting applications pending before local jurisdictions. Of those, approximately 760 have been pending final action for more than one year. More than 180 such applications have awaited final action for more than 3 years.
• CTIA Is Asking the FCC to:
• Establish timeframes within which zoning authorities must act on applications (45 days for collocation; 75 days for other facilities).
• Hold that if a zoning authority does not act, the application will be deemed granted, or in the alternative, establish a presumption that a reviewing court should issue an injunction granting the application unless the zoning authority justifies the delay.
• Clarify that a zoning authority may not deny an application filed by one provider based on the presence of another wireless provider in the area.
• Announce that, in a Sec. 253 preemption challenge, it will invalidate zoning ordinances that require all applicants for wireless facilities to obtain variances, regardless of the proposed facility’s location or scope.
• What CTIA Is Not Asking For:
• CTIA’s ‘Petition for Declaratory Ruling to Ensure Timely Siting Review’ does not ask the FCC to: Condition / limit the scope of a zoning authority’s tower application review. Preempt a zoning authority’s review of an application or to otherwise usurp state or local power.
• Prohibit all ordinances requiring a variance.