No. Commercial Small Cells Aren't Built to the Liability of Standards For First Responders

In Montgomery County public hearing it was argued by Montgomery County Emergency Management  that small cells are needed for public safety communications. However, commercial networks are not used for first responder communications. 
The County was sent a letter asking questions and has not received a response. 

IT IS FALSE TO ARGUE SMALL CELLS SARE NEEDED FOR 911 when these are proposed in areas where there already is service. 

“Unfortunately, commercial LTE networks simply aren’t built to the reliability standards required by first responders, so while the technology exists, and is used today by the public, it cannot be whole-heartedly adopted by first responders.“³⁵ 

COMMENTS OF SUE PRESENT

WT Docket No. 16-421

re: STREAMLINING DEPLOYMENT OF SMALL CELL INFRASTRUCTURE;

MOBILITIE, LLC PETITION FOR DECLARATORY RULING (pp.4-5)

In its quest for unfettered access to the PROWs, the Petitioner attempts to equate wireless commercial broadband services to the “essential services” of a regulated public utility.²⁷ The Petitioner additionally asserts its need for FCC action to further the congressional mandate for FirstNet.²⁸  However, Mobilitie’s requests for FCC intervention are subterfuges. In Montgomery County, the recent spike in applications submitted by Mobilitie, Crown Castle, and their wireless carrier tenants are “creaming” or “cherry picking” select geographic areas to provide enhanced wireless broadband coverage, while at the same time failing to provide even minimal levels of wireless broadband service to other geographic areas in the County.²⁹  Nothing either in the publicly available applications that have been recently submitted by these hosts and their tenant carriers or in the hosts’ franchise agreements with the County to occupy the PROWs suggests any interest or plans to meet the basic standard of a state-regulated utility to serve all consumers in their service territory.³⁰ 

Mobilitie also does not demonstrate to the FCC that its commercial wireless broadband service is either provided or contemplated to serve residential consumers throughout all its service territories. Obviously, wireless broadband service does not rise to the caliber of an “essential public service,” otherwise the Petitioner and its industry would be ensuring that all consumers in their service territories were equipped with adequate coverage.³¹  Further undermining the Petitioner’s assertions, not a single member of the wireless industry is on public record as having plans to provide coverage to all residents or all properties throughout its local service territory to support Countywide coverage for FirstNet (emergency responder communication). In Montgomery County, the industry’s plans are to densify/enhance areas that currently have superior connectivity, while approximately one third of the County remains either with inadequate connectivity or has none at all.³²  This disparity in connectivity is predominantly a problem in the area referred to as the Ag(ricultural) Reserve, where Census data show a disproportionately large percentage of the County’s older residents are located.³³ A FirstNet system that ignores segments of our County, especially its aging population, is a system that is for all intents and purposes broken from the start. 

As the Petition notes, “Congress created FirstNet in the 2012 Spectrum Act to provide a comprehensive state of the art national wireless network for the nation’s public safety agencies."³⁴  Has Mobilitie, in its Petition, been overtaken by enthusiasm to persuade the FCC to act, and inadvertently exaggerated the commercial wireless industry’s abilities to support FirstNet? Or is this a sleight of hand? The current technology that is being installed by Mobilitie, Crown Castle, and its tenants is commercial 4G LTE, at best. “Unfortunately, commercial LTE networks simply aren’t built to the reliability standards required by first responders, so while the technology exists, and is used today by the public, it cannot be whole-heartedly adopted by first responders.“³⁵ There is extensive speculation – just speculation – about 5G technology.  

Despite all the hype, the future upgrade to 5G isn’t really expected to remedy the commercial networks’ reliability problems. “Spurred by high-profile public safety communications failures during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, and recognizing that commercial networks would never meet the reliability standards needed by first responders, Congress passed a law creating ‘FirstNet,’ a project to build a dedicated LTE network for first responders.”³⁶  For LGUs to effectively embark on this critical challenge, it is essential that sufficient review processes take place to ensure that commercial facilities are sited at proximities that will not disrupt or otherwise interfere with planned or installed public safety communications networks. As a Verizon expert explained during an LGU hearing, co-locations at DAS node sites will diminish transmission capabilities.³⁷   

27 Petition at 2.

28 Petition at 5 – 6.

29 See Tower Committee map displaying “2016 Applications for DAS and ‘Small Cells’”

(https://gis3.montgomerycountymd.gov/WirelessApplications/  ).

30 See supra note 27.

31 Id.

32 Montgomery County Council Planning Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee Worksession (“PHED Worksession”), Item 7, ZTA 16-05 ~ at min 00:10:00 to 02:04:16. (September 12, 2016), available athttp://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=136&clip_id=12166 , M. Herrera ~at min. 01:29:20 – 01:30:35. 

33 Id., and see Ag Reserve census data at http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/rice/Resources/Files/Agreserve.pdf  .

34 See supra note 27.

35  B. Yelin and C. Webster, The University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security Blog, Public Safety Interoperability Challenges Remain – Why We Need FirstNet. (January 22, 2015). (http://www.mdchhs.com/public-safety-interoperability-challenges-remain-why-we-need-firstnet/  ). (emphasis added)

Note. Law and Policy Analysts Ben Yelin and Christopher Webster are identified at this publication site as two of the five members tapped to develop and staff a Maryland FirstNet Broadband Team for the Maryland Statewide Interoperability Office. 

36 Id. (emphasis added).

37 A. Martins, CentralJersey.com. Hillsborough: Verizon Wireless Expert Grilled During Cell Tower Hearing (Sept. 22, 2016). At a variance hearing, in Hillsborough Twsp, NJ., the applicant’s expert, Verizon radio frequency engineer David Stern answered questioned about installing DAS in a neighborhood instead of a monopole.“‘ What limits the coverage of the DAS is the power amplifiers that they put in the (attached equipment),” he said. “Every time you add another carrier to that same DAS node and you split it, you cut the power in half, so automatically, the coverage that you got from that site shrinks up and each time you do that, it shrinks some more.’”  Thus, the article concludes, "’the only way to combat such a reduction would be to construct additional DAS nodes.’"  Find the complete article at

(http://www.centraljersey.com/news/hillsborough-verizon-wireless-expert-grilled-during-cell-tower-hearing/article_e2b66d88-8107-11e6-a884-4343c32456e0.html