Long-Awaited Tower Agreement to Take Effect in March
The FCC published Tues. in the Federal Register the National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) for wireless tower siting, but the Commission still awaits approval of key forms that carriers must file under the pact. The effective date based on the publication is March 7, but sources said the FCC has yet to get administration sign- off on forms 620 and 621.
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A standardized form is an important part of the NPA. Currently, carriers must file different forms with different State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs). The FCC has asked for approval of the forms. They are before OMB, whose 60-120 day window to approve them started in mid-Nov. The forms could be approved by mid- Jan. or as late as mid-March. They were never meant to be published with the NPA since they're undergoing a separate approval process.
“We jumped on this as soon as we could,” a Wireless Bureau official told us. “We did what we could to have the pieces come together in time… This is not something we need to worry about on Jan. 4. We'll see as time goes on whether we have to take other action.”
The NPA is of interest not only to wireless carriers but also the satellite industry, broadcasters and anyone else that builds towers, noted a regulatory attorney who worked on the agreement. “This is a major deal because the FCC rules have not heretofore required licenses and applicants to do historic preservation reviews,” the attorney said: “This suddenly imposes a requirement that everyone has been doing and acted as though it was a requirement, but it wasn’t.”
The attorney said delays in part of the NPA aren’t surprising given the size of the task facing the FCC, industry and the states. “It’s important, but if they're not approved by March 7, unless there is indication they won’t get approved, it won’t be a huge problem,” he said. “It will be difficult if the forms aren’t ready. It certainly will be a glitch that the industry has to deal with, but it’s not a crisis.”
One surprise in the document was that the FCC incorporated into the publication the Collocation Agreement included as an appendix to the NPA. Doing so makes the agreement part of FCC rules. The FCC approved the NPA on Sept. 9, 2004, and released it on Oct. 5.