Cell Phone Antenna Fees Could Bring in $21.3M Annually

Cell Phone Antenna Fees Could Bring in $21.3M Annually

An Andrew/Mikom Mixed/Multi-Media Router (MMR) 8/19 cell phone antenna installed on a standard ‘cobra” style New York City light pole.

by linda j. wilson

New York City could receive some $21.3 million in annual compensation if six mobile telecommunications companies presented for contract awards by the city Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) agree to put mobile telecommunications antennas on 18,000 light poles throughout the city, Agostino Cangemi, DoITT deputy commissioner, Franchise Administration and Planning and general counsel told the Queens Borough Board Monday.

Cangemi told board members gathered at Borough Hall for the board’s last meeting before its August recess that six companies had been presented for franchise awards to the city Franchise and Concession Review Committee, two cell carriers, Nextel and OmniPoint (T-Mobile), three neutral carriers, ClearLinx Network Corporation, Crown Castle Solutions, Inc. and Dianet Communications, LLC, and one Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), IDT Business Services, LLC. Under the terms of the agreement, each of the companies has a non-exclusive franchise to install and use telecommunications equipment and facilities, including base station and access point facilities, on city street light poles, traffic light poles and highway sign support poles and to install and use related facilities in connection with the provision of mobile telecommunications services. Each franchisee may install equipment on a maximum of 3,000 poles citywide for a term of 15 years. The design of the equipment must meet with the approval of the city Art Commission and equipment may be installed only at intersections. Any mid-block locations require approval from DoITT and the Department of City Planning.

The city was divided into three zones in order to determine usage and compensation rates. Zone A comprises Manhattan south of 96th Street, Zone B is citywide, excluding Zones A and C, and Zone C includes all Community Planning Districts in which 5 percent or greater of the occupied housing units do not have telephone service according to the 2000 U.S. Census, Manhattan Community Boards 10 and 11, Boards 1 through 7 in The Bronx and Boards 3 through 5 and 16 in Brooklyn.

For each light pole used in Zone C only, franchisees will pay $10,000 a year. For poles in Zones B and C only, franchisees will pay $50,000 a year, and for poles in all zones, $100,000 a year. Minimum compensation projected if usage is distributed evenly among available zones with 1,000 poles used in each of Zones A and B and 2,500 poles in Zone C is $5,200,680 annually. If 4,000 poles in Zones A and B and 10,000 poles in Zone C are used, compensation is projected as $21,219,720 annually.

The equipment proposed to be installed on the light poles includes the Andrew/Mikom Mixed/Multi-Media Router (MMR) 8/19, a 40-pound rectangular metal box 32.7 inches high by 6.1 inches wide by 5.8 inches deep with a 100-inch high antenna that offers minimal visual impact. The device features single band and dual band, represents a coverage solution for dense urban areas, tunnels, subways, airports and tall buildings, consumes a low 450 watts of power and features remote monitoring.

Also proposed to be used is an LGP Allgon Distributed Antenna System (DAS), a wideband multi-carrier amplifier either 15.2 inches high by 15.2 inches wide and 4.3 inches deep or 21 inches high by 17.4 inches wide by 9.6 inches deep. Either size is relatively lightweight, weighing either 16 or 75 pounds and consuming either 110 or 320 watts of power.

The Vivato Bridge Router, which may also be used, is 5.7 inches high by 8.3 inches wide by 1.6 inches deep with 2 dipole antennas. It allows 2-channel operations, consumes 20 watts of power and weighs 2.1 pounds. All three devices fall well below federal guidelines for human exposure to radio frequency adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 1996.

"New York City is the first city in the United States to roll out mobile phone service on a larger basis," Cangemi said. The new antennas are expected to eliminate larger base stations completely if they are universally used.

Construction in New York City is not confined to installing mobile telecommunications antennas on light poles, and Sybil Dodson, director of community outreach and notification of the city Department of Design and Construction, said that the DDC has revised and expanded its procedure for notifying residents who live in neighborhoods where capital construction projects are about to begin and modifying the impacts such construction projects will have. The DDC, which was created in October 1995 as part of efforts to streamline city government and make it more responsive, assumed responsibility for many varied construction projects formerly performed by the city Departments of Transportation, Environmental Protection and General Services. These agencies became, in effect, DDC clients. Today, DDC manages a portfolio of more than 4.3 billion New York City capital construction projects, which include streets, highways and subsurface work such as sewers and water mains. Its structure division includes new construction and/or maintenance of correctional and court facilities and cultural institutions, libraries, schools and other public buildings.

Community impacts, Dodson explained, include dust and noise, heavy equipment movement, establishing of staging and storage areas interruption of essential services such as water, utilities and Sanitation Department pickups, blocking access to streets, sidewalks, parking and driveways and disrupting traffic movement by establishing detours and temporarily relocating bus stops. Of special concern when such impacts occur are access, traffic enforcement, property damage claims, site safety, housekeeping and accommodating persons with special needs. Also included in special conditions and concerns are commercial delivery service and carting disruption, rodent abatement, correction of sidewalk violations and accommodating community events such as ethnic or cultural heritage festivals.

The DDC coordinates with other agencies to address issues and concerns, Dodson said. The department works with the city Department of Transportation and the city Transit Authority to notify the public of route changes, service interruptions, street closings and parking restrictions, including producing and distributing "Take One" pocket cards for distribution on buses and subways. Coordination with the Department of Environmental Protection allows for posting water service shutoff schedules. Tree pruning or removal during a DDC project is coordinated with the Department of Parks and Recreation. The DDC works with the Department of Health for pest control and rodent abatement and coordinates baiting schedules with exterminators, either private or city agencies. With the Department of Sanitation, the DDC coordinates trash collections when streets are closed or traffic is restricted. The work of private carters contracted by restaurants and businesses is also accommodated and snow removal and dumping is also coordinated with the DDC. The DDC also works with emergency services such as EMS, the Fire and Police Departments, the city Office of Emergency Management and Access-A-Ride to deal with access issues and traffic and parking enforcement. If a situation arises in which service lines must be cut and service later restored, the DDC works with Consolidated Edison, KeySpan, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, among others, to make sure that service disruptions are kept to a minimum.

The DDC has also established a Good Neighbor Code of Conduct by which its workers and any companies with which it contracts will abide. The code’s five basic points state that noise will be minimized, construction will proceed in a safe manner, the community will be kept informed, the site will be clean and well maintained and relationships with the community will be polite and helpful.

Dodson stressed that community boards would be kept informed, as several community board chairpersons noted that on some previous occasions this had not been the case. However, Betty Braton, chair of Community Board 10, declared,"Your outreach efforts have been tremendously effective."