Expanding Wireless Networks

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/opinion/expanding-wireless-networks.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Why Does Verizon Care About Telephone Poles?,” by Sam Liccardo, the mayor of San Jose, Calif.(Op-Ed, nytimes.com, Oct. 3):

The next generation of mobile technology has incredible potential to expand digital-age opportunity. Unfortunately, some critics are presenting a false choice between local control and rapid deployment of next-generation mobile broadband networks, especially 5G.

We all share the same goals of connecting every American to world-class networks. And this can easily be a victory for consumers, communities and communications network operators.

Like every infrastructure challenge our country has faced, we must have strong public-private partnerships to make this a reality. Access to municipal poles and rights of way are a critical input to expanding wireless networks. But many localities have viewed these as a fee-generating opportunity rather than as the key to open the door for innovation and investment.

The rates that many municipalities charge today can’t honestly be called “cost based,” and unlike the hypercompetitive wireless industry, in this instance the local governments are seeking monopoly rents for access to their poles.

Let’s not miss the forest for the telephone poles. The best way to ensure a bright digital future is to remove barriers to infrastructure deployment, letting competition and investment help close the digital divide.

ROBERT M. MCDOWELL, WASHINGTON

The writer, the chief public policy adviser of Mobile Future, a group that advances innovation and investment in the wireless sector, was a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, 2006-13.