Bacon's Rebellion

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Small-Cell Broadband Comes to Fredericksburg

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James A. Bacon
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Fredericksburg soon could become the next city in Virginia with super-fast broadband, reports the Free Lance-Star. City Council approved a deal last week granting Cox Wireless Access LLC a 10-year, non-exclusive franchise to install the small-cell facilities that enable the next-generation 5G telecommunications network.

That decision follows previous deals with ExteNet to install 14 facilities on utility poles around the University of Mary Washington campus, and with Mobilitie LLC to install around a dozen boxes in the city’s public rights-of-way.

“Small-cell telecommunications infrastructure has generally been found to be a win–win for the city,” Public Works Director Dave King told the council. “Small cells help the city to achieve its goal of being the fastest broadband city in Virginia while also minimizing the visual impacts that are caused by the massive monopole towers that you may be accustomed to seeing in different areas around the region.”

The small-cell equipment is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage. Its range is significantly shorter than typical cell phone coverage, however, so far more of the units must be installed.

Small cells are enjoying a global boom right now as wireless carriers compete to roll out 5G technology, the fastest, bestest broadband access yet. The Federal Communications Commission voted in April to limit the ability of local governments to tax and regulate small-cell deployment. Virginia got a jump start, however, thanks to legislation enacted last year, which curtailed the ability of local governments to impose special exemptions or special use permits for small cell facilities installed on existing structures where providers already have permission to co-locate equipment.  

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2 responses to “Small-Cell Broadband Comes to Fredericksburg”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    ” These add additional wireless bandwidth to existing cell-tower networks, and are typically enclosed in a relatively unobtrusive cabinet mounted on existing infrastructure such as a street sign, streetlight or telephone pole.”

    So the thing that is striking about this – is how broadband is becoming wireless and moving away from cable?

    And if you can do something like this in Fredericksburg – why not clusters of homes in a rural area where the last mile is cellular 5G?

    Of course in the Fredericksburg REGION – the biggest whiners are those who chose to “sprawl” beyond the municipal infrastructure – want their internet but don’t want those ugly cell towers… They want their internet high speed and invisible!

    I know there is debate with respect to 5G serving rural -but there are folks who say it can happen:

    ” Industry Voices—Rysavy: How 5G will solve rural broadband”

    https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/industry-voices-rysavy-how-5g-will-solve-rural-broadband

  2. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    “The small-cell equipment is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage. Its range is significantly shorter than typical cell phone coverage, however, so far more of the units must be installed.”

    Sure, anything is better than stringing cables through the countryside to link up low density homes to a wired network. But even after reading LG’s article, I guess I don’t understand the technology of “small cell” or why it is any different than regular cell tower coverage, except perhaps frequency range, or why more such “carry-on luggage”-sized units hoisted into view on poles or monopole towers, even if smaller than normal cell towers, is such a good thing. Cell transceivers, too, are frequently installed on tops of buildings and pre-existing utility structures; why can’t these be?

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