Reading the newspaper last week, I came across more than one article regarding local communities approving the installation of 5G cellular infrastructure.
Each article made a point of noting, or quoting a government official noting, that federal law now restricts the opposition to the installation of cell nodes for 5G technology.
Knowing the significant health risks associated with 5G technology, I couldn’t believe that under federal law, local communities cannot prohibit installation of cell nodes to transmit 5G cellular technology.
For more information on the health risks, see this column from Nov. 20, 2018, www.islandnow.net/opinions-100/earth-matters-small-cells-big-problems-the-reality-of-5g/ where Patti Wood, executive director of Grassroots Environmental Education, explained the significant health concerns presented by 5G cellular technology.
After reading the entire, 118-page ruling and Third Report and Order of the Federal Communications Commission clarifying the regulations around installation of wireless broadband infrastructure (and specifically 5G infrastructure), I can say while local communities are not required to permit installation of this risky wireless broadband infrastructure, their ability to restrict it is so limited as to effectively make it a requirement.
The federal government, through the FCC, regulates how states and local governments handle permit applications to install 5G cellular technology infrastructure.
In late September 2018, the FCC issued an order providing current agency interpretation of two rules regarding small cell deployment.
The stated intent of the FCC’s order is to allow faster installation of 5G infrastructure. 5G cellular technology requires hundreds of thousands of small stations because the transmission signal range is much shorter than existing cellular technology.
A great deal of the FCC order discusses the shot clock, or the 60 to 90 days local officials have to approve or reject cell node installation requests. The other topic given the bulk of attention in the order is how much communities can charge 5G providers for deployment of 5G cells.
Fees are an issue because the FCC has determined that fees exceeding $500 can “unlawfully prohibit the provision of service.” That is the crux of the Telecommunications Act that these regulations are implementing.
Congress does not want to inhibit the provision of telecommunications service. At one time that was a real issue and may continue to be in certain parts of the country where cellular technology is more expensive (or less profitable) to install.
But there is a big difference between the technology at issue under the original Telecommunications Act (radio, television, and telephone) and the cellular technology being installed today. Today’s 5G cellular technology presents a real health risk.
Nowhere does the FCC order discuss a community’s interest and responsibility to balance its citizens’ health and safety against people’s insatiable drive for faster technology.
In fact, the order states that a permit application encompasses every local requirement including health considerations so that a community cannot take extra time to consider the health impacts of the requested location for infrastructure installation.
Communities have 60 to 90 days to act on an installation application depending on whether it involves new infrastructure or changes to existing infrastructure.
Such an abbreviated time frame with essentially no means for extending the review period effectively means the public has no opportunity to evaluate the health and other consequences of installation in a particular location.
Even if the community could analyze the health risks of the implementation application, the FCC order undercuts any effort to act on that analysis by concluding that it is an effective prohibition of wireless telecommunications services (which is illegal) to materially inhibit additional services or improve existing services.
So if a community decides the health risks are too great and therefore does not want to permit installation of 5G technology, it may be out of luck because it is illegal to inhibit additional services or improve existing services.
Furthermore, a community cannot impose any local requirements that could be considered discriminatory. For example, if one community permits company A to install 5G technology and a neighboring community denies permission to company B, does that create a situation where a competitor is treated materially differently from similarly situated providers?
Efforts to prohibit densification of networks are explicitly rejected. Neighborhoods can be inundated with 5G technology in order to allow various providers “fair” access to the market regardless of the devastating impact such density of cellular infrastructure may have on children’s development, cancer rates, and other health impacts.
This preemption of state and local authority is defended on the grounds that telecommunications interests are national and international. Therefore, a local or even state prohibition could have serious effects beyond its jurisdiction; therefore this matter needs to be regulated federally.
But when the federal government fails to act to protect our health and safety, and removes authority from the levels of government where we have more control, what can we do? Interestingly, in the congressional language acknowledging the intent to preempt state or local legal requirements that prohibit or effectively prohibit telecommunications service provision, it is clearly stated that state requirements to “protect the public safety and welfare” are not preempted. So where does that leave us?
It means we should challenge the apparent presumption that there is nothing we can do to control the spread of 5G cell nodes.
Attend your local village and town meetings and demand a legal analysis of the local authority’s ability to consider and act on the health risks of 5G technology in reviewing and approving cell node installation permit applications. Just as we wouldn’t accept dirty water coming out of our taps, let’s not accept pumping cellular technology poison into our air.
