Verizon, AT&T to other cities: Don’t use San Jose’s small cell deployment model

Verizon and AT&T quickly rejected a proposal by Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to use San Jose’s (CA) approach to small cells as a template for similar deployments in other cities. Hovering over the issue is a continued push by the nation’s wireless network operators to get the FCC to issue guidelines for how cities and states should smooth the rollout of small cells—including how much local regulators can charge carriers for small cell deployments.

“While Verizon is pleased to have reached a path forward with San Jose and a few other cities, the process for getting there was not quick or easy—for Verizon or for the cities—and confirms that reform is still essential. The costs associated with some of these arrangements also are high, far exceeding the costs incurred by cities, and it would be a mistake to assume that they would be economical in many other locations,” Verizon’s Will Johnson wrote. “And it would also be a mistake to take such an arrangement—negotiated by a locality with significant leverage and particular unrelated needs and challenges—and treat it as a model nationwide. Indeed, these arrangements leverage private sector investment, not public dollars, and the practical reality is that capital budgets are limited, and expense budgets have to be managed.”