Keep local oversight of cellular tech
Lawmakers in Sacramento are quietly taking up a bill that would give a multimillion-dollar handout to the world’s largest telecommunications companies while taking millions of dollars from San Francisco’s budget.
For years, the city has worked responsibly with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and other carriers to ensure that San Francisco residents receive their fair share of revenue for the use of public property by telecom companies. Working together, we have constructed policies that have minimized blight on streetlights and utility poles around the city, protected public health and safety by ensuring wireless equipment does not interfere with Muni or other services that use the poles, and raised millions of dollars for police, fire and other core city functions.
Now these same corporate giants are trying to make an end run around the process they agreed to.
Instead of continuing to work in good faith with local officials, they are seeking a give-away from state lawmakers that would cost San Francisco residents more than $30 million in higher utility bills over the next several years, according to San Francisco Public Utilities Commission estimates.
A bill in Sacramento backed by the wireless industry — SB649 by state Sen. Ben Hueso, D-San Diego — would strip California cities of their right to negotiate with telecom companies. It would give those companies carte blanche to install antennas, wireless boosters and whatever they want, wherever they want around the city — on any streetlight, Muni and traffic signal poles, and wood poles with electricity, cable or telephone lines attached. In the process, the bill would also rewrite existing agreements that allow telecom companies to install their equipment on publicly owned poles, reducing fees for wireless companies by more than $30 million over the next 10 years.
Telecom companies say they need these new rules to ensure 5G technology. The city supports the continued evolution of technology. But local residents should maintain the right to have a voice in how public property is used, and telecom companies should continue to pay their share for new services that will add millions of dollars to their bottom line.
SB649 could also affect Muni service. San Francisco’s overhead line transit poles are designed solely to support Muni operations. Allowing all transit poles, signal-light poles and sign poles to be used for cellular technology without the city’s review would expose the transit system to potential system failures.
The bill sets a dangerous precedent for the management of public resources because it eliminates the ability of the public to offer input on the installation of antennas on traffic lights or equipment boxes the size of a refrigerator on streets. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are pushing this legislation because they want to be able to put their equipment wherever they want to and avoid paying to offset community impacts.
Our leaders in Sacramento should stand up for the rights of citizens of our cities instead of offering a handout to multibillion-dollar corporations. SB649 is a triple-ripoff: Our neighborhoods lose flexibility to address visual blight, our taxpayers get shorted by caps on lease revenue, and our residents will still pay the same high prices for wireless service.
We all recognize the benefits the wireless industry offers our growing economy, but those must be balanced with local input and balanced use of public resources. SB649 is a brazen effort to strip power from local governments and hand it to some of the world’s largest corporations.
Our leaders in Sacramento should stand up for the best interests of our people. Don’t let Big telecom silence your voice. Contact the members of the Assembly Local Government Committee today, and join us in urging them to vote no.
Mark Farrell is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Harlan L. Kelly Jr. is the general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.