Small Cell Rules Could Save ISPs $2.4 Billion in Deployment Costs

Even prior to the coming small cell era, cell tower siting has been a laborious, expensive, time-consuming chore.

So recent moves by the Federal Communications Commission to expedite and streamline small cell deployments should both reduce cost and time to deploy.

CMA Strategy Consulting analysts, hired by Corning, looked at the implications of annual caps for attaching a 5G small cell to a utility pole of no more than $270 per unit, with a $100 application fee.  

Those proposed caps are set for an FCC vote Sept. 26, 2018.

Under the new proposals, municipalities would also be required to review and make decisions on new small cells and related infrastructure within two to three months.

"The sensitivity analysis concludes that reducing small cell and application fees could reduce deployment costs by $2 billion over five years, or $7,500 per small cell built," Thomas J. Navin, an attorney for Corning with Wiley Rein LLP, said in a filing with the analysis.

"These cost savings could lead to an additional $2.4 billion in capital expenditure due to additional neighborhoods moving from being economically unviable to becoming economically viable, with 97 percent of this capital expenditure going towards investment in rural and suburban areas."

The predicted cost savings also could mean an additional two million rural and suburban households connected to high-speed mobile service, observers say.