Among Midwestern states, Wisconsin is the only one to have not adopted federally recommended rules ostensibly meant to lower barriers to the development of 5G wireless networks. Now, after failing to pass similar legislation two years ago, a group of lawmakers is back with a new pair of 5G-related bills and an even bigger coalition of supporters. Of the opponents of the previous attempt, the only two holdouts are the cities of Milwaukee and Madison. Yet the arguments remain much the same. Once again, the fight over 5G in Wisconsin is likely to be one pitting the benefits of uniformity and efficiency against the desire for local control.
To state senators Tim Carpenter and Mark Miller—Democrats from Milwaukee and Madison, respectively—the latest 5G proposal is yet another example of Republican legislators thinking they know better than local officials what’s best for people living in cities, villages and towns. Carpenter noted that Milwaukee has already managed to strike deals with five wireless providers. That’s proof enough, he said, that city leaders are capable of handling these matters by themselves. The 5G legislation now making its way through the statehouse would render those agreements moot, Carpenter explains. “The current system is working,” he says. “It’s not broken.”
Miller says proponents of uniformity are making arguments that bear a strong resemblance to those used years ago when cable companies were pushing for the adoption of a statewide licensing law for cable television. “There were too many similarities,” Miller says. “You ended up with ugly cable boxes in equipment all over the state and very little control.”
But so far this year, things have not been going Miller’s and Carpenter’s way. The 5G wireless bill, Senate Bill 239, was approved by a 27-to-5 vote by the Wisconsin Senate on Wednesday, June 5, and by a majority of the lawmakers in the Assembly on Tuesday, June 18. It now only awaits Gov. Tony Evers’ signature to become law.
If passed, the legislation would place various sorts of checks on local governments’ authority to regulate and charge fees for wireless installations. Because of the desire to transmit ever greater amounts of data, 5G networks—whose speed is needed for self-driving vehicles, devices woven together in the so-called internet of things and other advanced technology—are many times assembled using so-called small-cell nodes attached to utility poles and other public property. Thus, 5G networks differ substantially from older wireless networks that tend to be made up of free-standing towers. In return for the right to place small-scale 5G nodes in the public right of way, local governments will usually seek lease fees from telecom companies. For the past several years, federal officials have been pushing for consistency in this system throughout the country.
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Federal Guidelines
Wisconsin’s legislation is largely modelled on guidelines the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted last September. Among other things, the FCC recommended that local officials be allowed to charge “no greater than a reasonable approximation of objectively reasonable costs” for handling applications and managing equipment installed in a right of way. In Wisconsin, that reasonable cost would be set at $250 a year for a small-cell node. Separately, the legislation would adopt strict timelines for when local governments must decide to either approve or reject a 5G project. A decision would have to be made within 60 days for proposed installations on utility poles or other existing structures and within 90 days for installations on new structures.
Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kansas all have rules of this sort in place. That makes Wisconsin the “hole in the donut,” as state Rep. Mike Kuglitsch, a Republican from New Berlin and big supporter of SB 239, is fond of arguing. “Right now, Wisconsin is at a competitive disadvantage,” Kuglitsch says. “Basically, that means we are losing out on millions of investment dollars. And our constituents, which are individuals and businesses, are losing out on the opportunity for more business and capacity when you look at the Foxconn project and everything else.”
Meanwhile, the bill’s authors have ,managed to build a fairly large coalition of supporters. They include not only AT&T and other big wireless companies but also We Energies’ parent company and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Even the League of Wisconsin Municipalities and other opponents of a similar attempt from two years ago are now taking a neutral stance. Usually staunch supporters of local control, such groups have been brought around in part by concessions that allow the caps set on maximum fees to increase automatically over time. In yet another compromise, local governments would be able to adopt rules governing the placement and appearance of installations in historic districts.
What About Recovering Costs?
That leaves Milwaukee and Madison as the only officially registered opponents. In testimony presented at a public hearing in late May, Brenda Wood, a lobbyist for Milwaukee, wrote that Wisconsin’s supposed lack of consistency might be less of a hindrance than proponents of SB 239 contend. More than 300 small-cell nodes are already installed in the city, she noted. What’s more, Wood wrote, the fee proposed by the legislation would not be high enough to let the city recover its costs associated with small-cell installations. The FCC’s original guidelines include a provision calling for local governments to be able to increase their fees if they could prove the cap had been set too low to cover costs. The legislation currently before state lawmakers, however, contains no such allowance.
“The fees specified in the bill are below our actual and direct costs, so we believe taxpayers will be subsidizing the build out of this wireless network,” Wood wrote in her testimony. Such complaints seem unlikely to stop the legislation this year, though. Beyond their concerns that Wisconsin is falling behind other Midwestern states, the bill’s authors are also particularly eager to have 5G networks up and running by the time the Democratic National Convention takes place in Milwaukee.
Skeptics will be quick to point out that few of those who attend the convention in July 2020 can be expected to have phones that are advanced enough for 5G service. And self-driving cars and the “internet of things,” in many cases, are still years away. Yet with the push on for ever-faster download speeds, arguments like these stand little chance of getting much more than a poor reception.
After this article went to press, Gov. Tony Evers weighed in, signing legislation imposing uniform statewide regulations on 5G networks on Wednesday, July 10. In signing the legislation, Evers issued a press release saying, "Senate Bill 239 allows us to catch up with the rest of the Midwest by bringing 5G to Wisconsin. This is an important step for investing and updating our infrastructure that will pave the way for the next generation of connectivity across our state."
