After paying the federal government some $8 billion so far for personal communications services (PCS) licenses, telecommunications companies are eager to offer the new service to paying customers.
The advanced form of digital cellular technology has only debuted in the Washington-Baltimore area, but counties across the country can expect to see the number of cellular towers jump from 18,000 to 100,000 in the next four years, according to industry estimates.
One municipality recently become embroiled in a dispute when a telecom company requested permits to build towers needed for the service. In February, when the San Diego City Council held a hearing on whether to OK the permits, it was bombarded by protests from hearing aid groups, who say the new digital PCS phones cause interference. The council postponed its decision on whether to allow the towers.
On March 19, the city council, over objections from hearing aid groups, gave the green light to erect the towers needed for the service.
San Diego made its decision only after it received assurances from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Reed Hundt that his agency is working to solve the interference problems. Hundt is overseeing the auctioning of the PCS licenses.
Currently, the agency is waiting to hear recommendations from an industry group (made up of telecom companies and hearing aid groups) before it proposes regulations. The group is due to hand over a report to the FCC later this month.
“We would like them [the FCC] to make sure any solutions would be adopted on an industry-wide basis, and not just leave it to the whims [of the companies], said Brenda Battat, executive director of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc., based in Bethesda, Md.
Meanwhile, the FCC says the interference problem is not something that should stop the growth of a new sector of commerce. “I think if it was a life or death difference, [the FCC] would hold off on it,” said Steve Markendorff, chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Broadband Branch. “But it’s really just an inconvenience. You don’t want to stop a whole industry.”
San Diego granted the permits to allow Pacific Telesis Group (PacTel), which has promised to work with hearing aid groups to solve interference problems.
“They’re taking a leadership role in this,” Battat said.
But she warns that hearing aid groups plan to keep tabs on the issue. “We don’t want too many of these things out there before we solve this,” she said.
San Diego City Attorney John Witt says that the telecommunications bill signed into law this year prohibits local governments from making a decision about cellular towers based on such technological decisions as the interference issue. To deal with the permits as anything but a land use issue could make municipalities vulnerable to litigation, he warned.