Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC DELAYS ACTION ON ADOPTION OF TOWER-SITING AGREEMENT

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:47:21 -0500

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FCC DELAYS ACTION ON ADOPTION OF TOWER-SITING AGREEMENT

The FCC has decided not to add consideration of a nationwide
programmatic agreement (NPA) to its agenda for its monthly meeting
tomorrow, agency and industry sources said. An agency source said
Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy had asked FCC Chairman Michael K.
Powell to keep the item off the agenda because she wanted more time to
consider it. Ms. Abernathy had asked that the item be kept off the
agenda before it was released last Thursday because she wanted more time
to meet with stakeholders in the proceeding.

But an industry source said he understood that two Commissioners "were
uncomfortable" voting on the accord tomorrow. "It will be done as soon
as possible on circulation," an agency source said. The wireless
industry is still working to persuade the FCC to make additional changes
to the NPA.

The Commission had originally planned to consider the item at its
February meeting but agreed to delay action for a month to give
stakeholders additional time to negotiate changes to the accord. In a
filing at the Commission today, an industry coalition listed eight
"problematic procedures" it had with a draft of "best practices" on
tower siting that the FCC is negotiating with the United South and
Eastern Tribes. Industry representatives are worried that the document
will affect the final makeup of the NPA because the Commission wants the
two documents to be consistent with each other. The draft of the best
practices was released to industry last Friday.

Today's industry filing complained that the best practices extend to at
least 88 days and as long as nine months or more the length of time
tribes have to respond to industry contacts. "Where tribes do not
respond, they require six redundant contacts to initiate consultation,
and five mandatory waiting periods that the FCC cannot shorten or
waive," the filing said. It also said the best practices "unnecessarily
require for every site, unless expressly waived by a tribe, a full,
detailed site survey for above ground properties, using qualified
professional historians." The coalition also complained that the best
practices "give tribes previously unknown power to reverse their
positions."

If the FCC doesn't ensure that these problems are not in the NPA, it
should (1) delay adoption of the NPA "to provide time to develop more
reasonable procedures in consultation with industry and other
stakeholders," or (2) adopt the accord without the tribal consultation
section, the coalition said. An industry source said the FCC was still
considering two "categorical" exclusions on highways and other
rights-of-way and in industrial areas that industry wants in the NPA. He
said the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National
Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers had endorsed language
submitted by industry revising the two exclusions.- Paul Kirby,
[email-masked]

tr.com
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