By Ray Le Maistre, Aug 6, 2021

• Network operators will need to densify their 5G networks
• ‘Street furniture’ such as light poles will play a key role
• Early examples are already operational
• Regulators, cities and vendors are working to make deployments possible

As mobile operators densify their radio access networks to put 5G’s capabilities to their full use, ‘street furniture’ – in particular street lighting infrastructure – is set to play an increasingly important role in enabling that, as well as providing lots of other smart city/IoT capabilities. 

Using street lights as a way to deploy wireless access infrastructure is not new, but it’s also not that widespread, and is only just starting to play a role in 5G expansion plans. As it happens, this development comes at a time when cities are increasingly deploying more efficient LED lighting infrastructure that is well suited to housing smart city-enabling technology, including small cells and Wi-Fi access points. 

Read more at https://www.telecomtv.com/content/5g/shedding-light-on-5g-street-furniture-42145/

The post Shedding light on 5G street furniture appeared first on EMFSA.

Neil Zolot / medford@wickedlocal.com

Published April 5th, 2021

City officials are imposing some conditions on Verizon on installations of 5G telecommunications equipment on utility poles around the city, but will be required to approve the vast majority of the 44 applications, most of which are in Medford Square, South Medford and the Hillside area.

After hours of public testimony on the matter during a video-conference meeting Wednesday, March 31, the Ad Hoc Small Cell Committee decided to hold off on dealing with each application until April 8.

“Federal law is very strong; it prohibits municipalities, when acting as a regulatory authority, from effectively prohibiting wireless telecommunications,” Robin Stein of legal consultant KP Law told the board. “You can’t deny based on health considerations. Federal law is explicit that you can’t consider health and environmental concerns. You can impose a condition so long as that is not going to effectively prohibit their ability to install the facility and provide wireless service.”

Her advice confirmed statements made by Verizon legal representative Michael Giaimo of Robinson and Cole that the applications were “not inconsistent with federal law” and “municipalities may not decide based on health concerns.”

Some of the conditions will probably be compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, setbacks, prohibition of detectable noise, keeping the equipment in good order, prohibiting double poling and holding Verizon financially responsible for costs in preparing poles for installations and costs related to lighting.

Small Cell Committee Chairman and City Engineer Tim McGovern pressed for an annual maintenance schedule, to which Giaimo responded, “I don’t think we’re going to want to do that.”

He also mentioned an internal malfunction detection system. Small Cell Committee member and Director of Community Development & Energy and Environment Alicia Hunt conceded, “We’ll just have to trust it works.”

The idea of shrouding the installation was brought up. Giaimo said Verizon would ask for a waiver on that because shrouds negatively affect the system.

Read more at: https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/medford-transcript/2021/04/05/medford-officials-residents-opposed-5-g-despite-concerns-over-health/7066907002/

The post Health concerns don’t matter, say feds, when it comes to regulating 5G installations appeared first on EMFSA.

Source https://interestingengineering.com/the-weird-world-of-hiding-5g-technologies-in-plain-sight

By Marcia Wendorf Mar 17, 2021

Along the roadsides of posh North Scottsdale, Arizona are some tall Saguaro cacti, but look a little closer and you’ll notice something strange. Many of the cacti are exactly 24-feet-tall, and they all look alike.

The Scottsdale cacti are actually 4G LTE and 5G fixed wireless antennas, and they’re not alone. In the Eastern U.S. and the Denver, Colorado area, some of the beautiful pine trees are actually antennas, while in the South, antennas are masquerading as palm trees.

And, it’s not just trees that you need to be suspicious of. In Texas, antennas are hiding out in city recycling bins, while in the Midwest, some of the ubiquitous water towers aren’t what they seem. Across the country, light poles, traffic lights, signs, chimneys, rooftops, lanterns, church steeples, and clock towers are hiding radio equipment.

The need to hide 5G antennas

5G, or fifth-generation wireless, promises speeds above 1 Gbit/s, which is vastly faster than 4G LTE, along with near-zero latency, or lag time. In September 2018, the Federal Communications Commission released its 5G Fast Plan, which calls for cities, cell and cable providers, and electric utilities to work together so that 5G can be rolled out as quickly as possible across the U.S.

5G operates at higher wave frequencies and shorter millimeter wavelengths than 4G. This causes 5G waves to be more easily blocked by objects, such as houses or trees. Even leaves can block a 5G signal. To counter this, 5G uses “small cell” antennas, which are around the size of a pizza box, and it needs lots of them.

5G antennas must be set up every couple of hundred feet apart, which is around the length of a city block. In order to allow for self-driving vehicles, the 5G antennas must be located close to street level.

Small cell antennas have a range of around 656 feet (200 meters), and they connect to the Internet via fiber optic cables. The types of small cell antennas that are deployed vary, depending on the spectrum bands that a cell operator is using, and the vendors who are supplying the transmission equipment.

“Not in my backyard”

While the public wants the increased speed and bandwidth that 5G promises, increasingly across the U.S., the installation of small cell antennas has been met with cries of “not in my backyard.” Cities such as Baltimore, Maryland and Arvada, Colorado have passed legislation requiring that cell carriers camouflage, obscure, or disguise their small cell antennas.

Read more at: https://interestingengineering.com/the-weird-world-of-hiding-5g-technologies-in-plain-sight

The post The Weird World of Hiding 5G Technologies In Plain Sight appeared first on EMFSA.

TCI Magazine, official publication of the TREE CARE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION https://tcimag.tcia.org/tree-care/beware-the-dangers-from-am-radio-and-5g-transmission-sites/

by RICK HOWLAND

As if tree care isn’t dangerous enough, there’s an increasing safety threat that hasn’t yet gotten much attention – radio waves. Radio waves are everywhere, and have been since the dawn of the universe. Man-made ones have been around for more than a century, starting with the wireless telegraph. But with ever-more sophisticated uses of the radio spectrum and increased use of aerial equipment –aerial lifts and cranes – in proximity to the source of radio waves, serious injury becomes a concern.

The latest threat is the proliferation of the so-called 5G, or Fifth Generation, cellular-phone networking that promises faster data speeds and greater reliability using multiple technologies, including mini-cell sites at the neighborhood level on utility poles. But working too closely or too long near one of these mini installations or near a high-power radio transmitter can be dangerous in several ways, specifically resulting in burns or, in some rare circumstances, electric shock.

The industry has experienced incidents related to radio-frequency (RF) radiation.

John Haehnel, director of safety and training for Tree Tech, Inc., a dual-accredited, 38-year TCIA member company headquartered in Foxboro, Massachusetts, can speak to the dangers from experience, and has the scars to prove it.

This past September, Haehnel and his utility line-clearance crew were working just outside of Boston with an all-terrain crane within the proximity – about 100 yards – of several AM radio towers and a 5G cell-transmission installation. “I got zapped,” he reports, “maybe from the AM tower or the 5G. We are running into that more and more.”

Haehnel, who happened to be filling in for the vacationing crane operator that day, states that, as one of his crew was getting ready to go aloft, the worker reported something was wrong and that he felt as if he was being shocked. (This phenomenon is described in numerous Federal Communications Commission [FCC] documents.)

Haehnel had the crane boom out about 110 feet or more. “I had the crane’s ball down to tie in the worker, walked over to it, got to within a foot-and-a-half and got zapped by the ball.” He says the lightning-like flashover resulted in first- and second-degree burns and a scar to one hand. “The ball was so hot, you could not touch it.”

Initially, Haehnel thought the situation might be something electrical with the crane, until the nearby radio towers explained it. “Ironically, I had just done a small-scale, 5G safety presentation just two weeks prior,” he says, adding, “but from where we were, we could not see the big 5G antenna,” which is part of a 5G network, not just the small local sites.

Haehnel reports that they later discovered four or five AM antennas and the big 5G antenna installation nearby. “We had scoped out the site and put the crane ball next to the tree, but we could not see the towers from ground level,” he says.

Read more at: https://tcimag.tcia.org/tree-care/beware-the-dangers-from-am-radio-and-5g-transmission-sites/

View a video demonstrating the radio-frequency-related arcing at the link above.

The post Beware the Dangers from AM Radio and 5G Transmission Sites appeared first on EMFSA.

Staff Writer 7 October 2020

Vumacam poles with grey camera domes have been rolled out across Johannesburg, and one thing which stands out is that the height of the poles far exceeds the height of the domes.

The reason for this additional height is to make it possible to carry extra infrastructure such as solar panels or network equipment in future.

Vumacam has been rolling out its security camera network across Johannesburg for three years, and it now has 3,000 poles of which 2,700 of which have cameras installed.

Read more at: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/369867-the-reason-why-vumacam-poles-are-much-taller-than-the-camera-domes.html?utm_source=newsletter

The post The reason why Vumacam poles are much taller than the camera domes appeared first on EMFSA.

TUCSON (KVOA) – Looking at the small cell pole, it looks a lot like a light pole, but if you look a little closer, it is not. It is actually a wireless pole to provide faster speed internet and better cell reception.

It sounds great right? Not exactly great news if you are a resident with one in your front yard.

“I do not think it adds to my property value. I asked them if there were other options besides near my front door and they said no based on the grid they set up,” said Tucson resident Josh Franklin.

Franklin did not have a say in the new cell pole outside his house. In fact, he found out about it when they were digging in his yard two months ago. He contacted the City of Tucson. They do not have a say in the installation either.

According to state legislation, the city’s role is only processing permits for these small cell wireless poles.

“We review the permits as they come in, make sure they are in compliance with the requirements of the permit and then we issue the permit,” City of Tucson Department of Transportation & Mobility Deputy Director Sam Credio said.

Verizon and AT&T install these poles.

“We have no say on where the poles actually go. That design is done by Verizon and AT&T,” said Credio.

Watch the video and read the full article at:

The post City of Tucson & residents have zero control over cell pole placement appeared first on EMFSA.

August 6, 2020

The City of Gig Harbor, WA recently joined 19 other cities and organizations in a lawsuit against an FCC Declaratory Ruling and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning wireless infrastructure.

The Tacoma News Tribune reported the city sent a letter to the FCC on June 1, opposing the NRPM due to social distancing guidelines that prevented city staff from meeting at City Hall to review the order. The rule changes impose new requirements on local governments to immediately review and update their current ordinances, policies, and applications systems involving wireless towers. 

The City of Gig Harbor expressed particular concern that the new ruling will override the city’s authority to enforce wireless facility aesthetic standards, including small cells in public rights-of-way.

“These regulations included adoption of aesthetic and concealment standards for 5G equipment,” said Community Development Director Katrina Knutson. “We believe these regulations should be adhered to in order to prevent negative impacts to our visual landscape.

Drafted to expedite the deployment of 5G, the draft ruling also includes more definitive shot clock guidelines and allows new antenna installations to be allowed above existing antennas, provided they are separated by 20 vertical feet. 

Knutson told the Tacoma News Tribune the city is not trying to stop the development of new technology, but wants local authority over its deployment in their community. The City’s letter to the FCC said, “If the Commission truly wishes to have an open and inclusive process, the City of Gig Harbor asks that, at minimum, the FCC delay action on this item until the pandemic subsides.”

Read more at https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news-poor-timing-of-the-fccs-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-incites-lawsuit/

The post Timing of the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Incites Lawsuit appeared first on EMFSA.

For more information see:

https://www.axios.com/5g-deployment-battle-cities-fcc-small-cell-ad1bfba2-2ffd-463f-8ed4-48a3c664249b.html

The post The battle over 5G deployment in America’s cities appeared first on EMFSA.

1. Background

New planning legislation was adopted and implemented in Cape Town on 1 July 2015, inclusive of the City of Cape Town Municipal Planning By-law, 2015 (the by-law). The by-law also includes the City of Cape Town Development Management Scheme (DMS), which is the zoning scheme for the City. All land units within the City have a base zoning that determines how the land can be used, and how the land may be developed. Zoning provisions are indicated in the DMS.

The City has approved a number of amendments to the by-law as part of its annual review process and to give effect to the policies and strategies adopted by the City. The latest set of amendments were adopted by Council on 31 October 2019.

Amendments were promulgated in Provincial Gazette Extraordinary No 8185 on 6 December 2019. The effective date that the amendments will come into operation is 3 February 2020.

A summary of the main changes is now provided, where after each amendment will be presented in sequence in terms of the relevant Section numbers in the MPBL, noting that in the amendments to the Development Management Scheme reference is given to the relevant Item numbers.
The legal version of any amendment will be contained in the Provincial Gazette Extraordinary and
not in this explanatory guide.

PDFs in English and Afrikaans

MPBL_2019_Amendment_Guide

Municipal_Planning_Amendment_Bylaw_2019_Afrikaans

The post Explanatory guide to the City of Cape Town: Municipal Planning Amendment By-law, 2019 appeared first on EMFSA.

The video highlights the proliferation of small cell antennas that are being deployed in urban and suburban areas of the country and provides a technician’s perspective on the unique hazards such as traffic, electrical, RF exposure and fall prevention that must be accounted for when installing and maintaining this technology.

The post NATE Small Cell Deployment appeared first on EMFSA.