FCC votes to speed up cell tower sites

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to impose a "shot clock" for siting tower applications, or the process wireless carriers must follow to install new wireless antennas and nodes on towers to expand cell phone networks. The new timeframes mandated by the FCC are 90 days for "collactions," or adding a node to an existing tower site, and 150 days for other tower sitings. CTIA, on behalf of the wireless industry, has been lobbying for this for some time. It told the FCC that it knows of 760 applications for new tower sites that have been waiting for responses by state and local governments for over a year. About 180 applications have been waiting for more than three years.