“Where's my 4G?” |
| Posted: 20 Aug 2010 02:47 PM PDT It's not an overstatement to say that Sprint pulled off a significant coup earlier this year when it introduced America's first 4G smartphone to rave reviews. The HTC Evo 4G not only attracted new customers to a carrier that had long been losing them, but also it gave a much needed boost to a struggling brand image. Though the Evo 4G, and the newer Samsung Epic 4G, are sold across the country, Sprint 's 4G WiMax network still does not cover some of the nation's largest cities. And for 4G handset owners paying an extra $10 per month for service they don't get, the coverage gaps can seem endless, inexplicable and frustrating. Why the wait? Sprint 4G marketsAs of August 20, 2010 California Delaware Georgia Florida Hawaii Idaho Illinois Maryland Michigan Missouri Nevada New York North Carolina Oregon Pennsylvania Texas Washington Utah Virginia 4G cities by end of year Future 4G cities AZP "[AZP] is the part of process that takes the most time," Saw said. "Each municipality can have slightly different zoning laws so we need to plan way ahead of time to get all of these things done." Under the best circumstances Saw estimates that it can take less than a year to completely build out a market. But if the locality requires particularly complex regulations, or Clearwire needs to seek approval from overlapping governmental agencies, the process can go 18 months or more. Before adding St. Louis, for example, Saw said that Clearwire had to work with 125 municipalities in order to secure the proper approvals. For the New York City market, however, it is negotiating with more than 350 municipalities, each with its own zoning requirements. And if the number of cities isn't enough, sometimes they can compete with each other. Patrick Ryan, adjunct professor of telecommunications policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said that some communities have tried to influence antenna placement to their advantage. Because tower leases are a revenue source, a municipality might insist that they be installed on city-owned property. In another scenario, City A might deny an application for a tower placed on its border with City B, but then approve the installation if it's moved solely within City A's boundaries. "Cities want to know where [the tower] covers and try and steer you a certain way," Ryan said. "They're trying to get into the engineering business and look at what the benefit is for them." New or used? Nonetheless, 4G presents unique challenges. Because WiMax is a new technology, Sprint and Clearwire can't use existing CDMA antennas. "With true 4G deployment, you must go to every cell site and turn up capacity with new equipment," Terazi said. "Otherwise, you don't really have the capacity to do it." In most markets, Sprint and Clearwire can save time by installing the equipment on existing towers, a process called collocation. Because the tower already exists, the applicants can skip straight to the permitting process. Ryan says that collocation has another advantage under an FCC regulation issued last November. Though Congress had previously said that tower applications must be decided upon in a "reasonable time," the FCC's "Shot Clock" order requires municipalities to rule on collocation applications within 90 days. For new tower applications local governments can take up to 150 days. While Ryan cautioned that it's still too early to tell how the Shot Clock order has affected 4G deployment, Washington's increased role is significant. "The federal government has recognized that it will have to facilitate [4G] deployment," he said. "Otherwise, you can go into an application that can be endless...and it can be very expensive." The FCC took a similar role in 2006 went it issued a shot clock for cable franchising. Under those regulations, applications would be approved automatically if the local governments failed to act in the allotted time period. The wireless industry, represented by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, asked for a similar default mechanism in the November decision, but the FCC denied its request. Instead, the FCC ruled only that an applicant has 30 days to sue if no decision is made after the deadline. Despite that loss, CTIA Vice President of Public Affairs John Walls said his organization strongly supports the measure. "So many applications were tied up in the zoning approval process for years or more," he said. "The shot clock gave our carriers certainty and a much more reliable time frame." Once past the approval process, 4G installation can happen quickly thanks to the small footprint of the equipment. In most locations, all that's needed is a four-by-three foot box, a microwave dish at the top of the tower, and a fiber cable. "The small footprint gives us a lot of flexibly," Saw said. "We go in places where other carriers can't." A tale of three cities "With Seattle not only do you have to consider terrain, which includes the hills and valleys, but in areas with high foliage you have to space your cell sites to make sure you can get your signal through," he said. "And then you have to worry about large bodies of water." Walls agreed that trees as a sticking point, particularly in suburban communities where only small commercial areas are zoned for tower installation. Reaching beyond parkland and into commuting routes and homes can be difficult. In contrast, the urban density of New York City poses the opposite problem. Saw wouldn't say exactly how many cell sites that Sprint and Clearwire would need to cover New York, but a fair guess would puts the number in the thousands. Currently, Sprint and Clearwire use a two-tier approach to cover large cities. "Macro" sites, which sit on top of buildings and broadcast to a large area, require approval not only from the city, but also a lease from the building owner. With the smaller "Pico" sites, which are installed on utility poles for deeper signal reach inside buildings, the New York City Department of Information Technology and Communications also weighs in. "With this tow-tier design, we're able to provide the coverage that we need", Saw said. "Before they give us permission, we need to meet the installation criteria for each party." Multiple government agencies also come into play in San Francisco, and for that matter, the entire state of California. Depending on their location, tower applications may need approval from the California Coastal Commission, the California Department of Transportation and even some Homeowner's Associations. While securing those multiple approvals certainly takes time, Terazi said San Francisco's geography, rather than NIMBYism (not in my backyard), poses the biggest problem to 4G expansion. "You can work around regulations where you have a lot of choice where to go, but when you have a place that's hilly, there are better spots than others to be able to see certain neighborhoods," he said. "You're confined to a very small geography." Even Apple CEO Steve Jobs called out San Francisco's reputation for excessive red tape last month when the defended the iPhone 4's later found, Jobs wasn't off base when he said it can take up to three years to add a new cell phone tower here. Ryan stopped short of calling San Francisco's regulations excessive--a recent proposal would place tighter controls over tower aesthetics--though he acknowledged the delicate balance between a public desire for better cell phone service and the need to address local concerns. "I don't think it's going about it the right way, but I think San Francisco is genuinely trying to satisfy constituent concerns as an honest broker," he said. About aesthetics As a result, Ryan said that some municipalities are able to consider concerns over whether wireless signals are safe. "They're making decisions that regulate aesthetics, but they're still addressing the age-old question of 'Is the antenna safe?'," he said. "In many cases it is about aesthetics, but in other cases it's about [radiofrequency] with the flavor of aesthetics." Carriers have reacted to aesthetics concerns in a number of ways. They may hide antennas in church steeples or at the tops of buildings or they may disguise towers to look like palm or pine trees. Alternatively, in cities with defined historical neighborhoods like Santa Fe, NM, they must design antennas to blend in with accepted architectural styles. "There are some municipalities that are genuinely interested in aesthetics," Ryan said. "And there are some communities that using it as a way to steer sites over to municipal property so they're the property owner." Getting inside "4G will drive us to do a much higher percentage of buildings," Terazi said." It's not just to send a text or an e-mail; you need high capacity data services. Your needs inside are more important." Instead of relying on outside antennas, Sprint and Verizon install Pico sites inside the building for better penetration. In other words, instead of coming from the outside in, they provide the signal from inside out. "For every [public building] you have to be able to reach the signal into places that are hidden from the outside world," Terazi said. "Each building is an engineering project." Here again, permission from multiple sources is necessary. In government buildings, for example, the carriers may have to meet security clearances, check compatibility with IT departments and consult with the building's owner. In airports, they may have to meet FAA requirements, pay a few to the airport's operator and share electrical conduit with the other tenants. "Airports are a special case," Saw said. "You have to deal with each approval body on an individual basis. Where to start? Despite the many hurdles involved, Terazi maintains that at the end of the day his company sees 4G is an investment--an investment that will lead to faster service, better coverage and more customers. "You start with the bigger markets and work down. There's not a lot more to it than that," he said. "It's about where you have the customers and where you have the people to use it." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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