Congress Offers Suggestions on 5G

Twenty-five members of Congress sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on September 25, 2018, offering suggestions on promoting local deployment of advanced communications services, protecting local authority, and 5G. They urged the FCC to: recognize localities' historic and ongoing role in managing rights-of-way to ensure safe deployment and achieve aesthetic goals; establish guardrails to delineate where local regulations either promote or effectively prohibit the construction of the networks urgently needed for 5G and broadband; ensure localities are fully compensated for their costs in issuing permits, overseeing deployment and, where necessary, managing the rights-of-way; and set reasonable and enforceable deadlines for localities to act on wireless permit applications.