Several Texas cities filed a lawsuit against the state legislature over bills that prevent local government from having control over technology needed for advanced 5G cellular networks to flourish for cellphone users.
The new technology from telecoms such as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile requires a large number of cellular nodes in order to perform at least four times faster than the average network. This technology has difficulty transmitting through walls and performs best with dense transmitter networks.
State (and federal) governments passed bills in 2017 that limited local governments' involvement in both installing new cell nodes and their locations, in addition to “capping the amount that can be charged to access city-owned rights-of-way,” as initially reported by Texas Public Radio.
Many cities, including Houston, argue that this action takes away public property and hands full authority of it to corporations, which goes against the state constitution.
“Requiring a city to give away their property at 10 percent of what it might be worth on the open market doesn’t make sense to us,” a Houston representative said to TPR.
Another bill cuts fees for phone providers who also install cable television.
Texas Municipal Leagues General Counsel Scott Houston said that as Texas cities begin to distribute 5G networks to consumers by installing more nodes, it will eventually cost taxpayers more than $800 million annually in “lost rights-of-way rental” revenue.
Cities like Houston that experienced a cap had a cost that was 90 percent lower than what was originally negotiated with telecommunication companies. These cities described how this leaves too low of an amount to collect funds in order to process applications.
In 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) modified rules to allow companies offering 5G to impose the same fee limitations and require mandatory reviews of timelines and limitations, which saved telecom industries roughly $2 billion.
The FCC stated that rushing to distribute 5G could “unleash an additional $100 billion to the U.S. economy.” An order from the FCC was rejected in 2018 that would exempt facilities developing 5G from undergoing environmental assessments and historic design review.
The lawsuit is still ongoing because it had to be refiled following the 2019 legislative session.
