FCC Recognizes Importance of Deregulation, Towers, Spectrum

By Don Bishop, Exec. Editor, Assoc. Publisher, AGL Magazine

July 23, 2018

Speaking at the AGL Local Summit in Philadelphia earlier this year, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said he has an appreciation for the hard, often gritty work that goes into deploying the wireless infrastructure necessary to bring next-generation opportunity to communicate. The commissioner viewed wireless deployments in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, in Beatty, Nevada, and in Baltimore and Detroit.
The commissioner also said he attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opening of a training facility built by Sioux Falls Tower & Communications in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which has a 50-foot-tall practice structure.

“I had the chance to climb it with two of their experienced tower workers, Brandon and Leland,” Carr said. “Looking back, I am convinced that they left at least one zero off of that 50-foot description. When we reached platform at the top, I was a little winded. And it did not help when Brandon and Leland started rocking the structure back and forth in an exercise they said was designed to give me a sense of the conditions on a taller tower like the 2,000-foot one Brandon recently climbed.”

To have an FCC commissioner engaged with wireless infrastructure on these two levels — business development and safety — supports an optimistic view for advancements in wireless communications.
In a mention that I have reason to like, Carr recalled writing an article, “How Federal Preemption Helps Tower Owners,” that AGL Magazinepublished in 2006. “Fast forward a dozen years later, and I would submit that finding ways to modernize and streamline wireless infrastructure deployment is as important as ever,” he said.

My thanks to Commissioner Carr for speaking at the AGL Local Summit. The attention the FCC pays to facilitating wireless infrastructure development and doing it in a safe manner will be helpful to those in the tower, small cell and distributed antenna system business.

And, if you have been considering whether to write an article for AGL Magazine, take heed of what it did for Brendan Carr’s career. Hesitate no longer.

Come to the next AGL Local Summit September 27 in Kansas City.

Mid-band Spectrum

On July 12, the FCC took steps with an order and a notice of proposed rulemaking leading to making available for wireless communications 500 megahertz of radio-frequency spectrum in the 3.7-GHz to 4.2-GHz range known as mid-band spectrum. Anything that helps wireless carriers to offer improved and additional services means opportunity for the wireless infrastructure business.

Don Bishop
Executive Editor and Associate Publisher
Don Bishop joined AGL Media Group in 2004. He helped to launch and was the founding editor of AGL Magazine, the AGL Bulletinemail newsletter (now AGL eDigest) and DAS and Small Cells magazine (now AGL Small Cell Magazine). He served as host for AGL Conferences from 2010 to 2012, appearing at 12 conferences. Bishop writes and otherwise obtains editorial content published in AGL Magazine, AGL eDigest and the AGL Media Group website. Bishop also photographs and films conferences and conventions. Many of his photographs have appeared on the cover, in articles and in the “AGL Tower of the Month” center spread photo feature in AGL Magazine. During his time with Wiesner Publishing, Primedia Business Information and AGL Media Group, he helped to launch several magazines and edited or managed editorial departments for a dozen magazines and their associated websites, newsletters and live event coverage. He is a former property manager, radio station owner and CEO of a broadcast engineering consulting firm. He was elected a Fellow of the Radio Club of America in 1988, received its Presidents Award in 1993, and served on its board of directors for nine years. Don Bishop may be contacted at: dbishop@aglmediagroup.com.