[1st-mile-nm] Santa Fe aims to improve broadband, cell coverage

[Richard Lowenberg]

Santa Fe aims to improve broadband, cell coverage

By Tripp Stelnicki | The New Mexican Apr 24, 2018

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/santa-fe-aims-to-improve-broadband-cell-coverage/article_83d99271-2815-598a-a5d1-0ac61c8fb6e4.html

A cell signal eludes Mark Johnson in his downtown office.

The chief executive of Descartes Labs, a buzzy tech startup expanding 
its footprint at a new headquarters on Guadalupe Street, instead uses a 
video-conferencing application or desk phone in current office on Paseo 
de Peralta.

“That’s suboptimal,” Matt Brown, the city’s economic development 
director, deadpanned last week.

But a wave of new telecom infrastructure is en route, and in a city 
where famously spotty cellular and internet service has long bedeviled 
21st century businesses, residents and tourists alike, there’s optimism 
Santa Fe will soon turn the great connectivity corner.

A raft of telecommunication franchise agreements are coming down the 
city’s legislative pike; the resulting network expansions in the city’s 
public rights of way could eventually provide Santa Feans with faster 
speeds, broader coverage and additional retail competition — and thus 
lower costs, according to city fiscal analyses.

“This is our biggest and best opportunity in many years,” said Brown.

Around the signal, however, there will be noise, as the outspoken cadre 
of local residents who say cellular radiation poses a grave health risk 
are likely to protest the proposed agreements when they appear before 
the City Council in early May.

“If they pass this, we will lose control of our streets and sidewalks,” 
said Arthur Firstenberg, the outspoken local advocate against 
electromagnetic radiation. “To us, this is a mortal threat. It will 
injure people. It will kill people. We will have no more honeybees. We 
will have no more birds.”

The proposed ordinances generally establish new access rights to the 
public right of way for telephone and internet service providers, 
whether with cables or antennas.

They follow a tweak to city law approved last year that eased access for 
such companies — an arcane smoothing of permitting processes that 
nonetheless drew impassioned condemnations from the anti-wireless 
activist bloc of Santa Feans, as well as some residents who were 
concerned about the debatable aesthetic effects of antennas on top of 
light poles.

All the same, the new telecom right-of-way changes earned the unanimous 
support of the City Council, as it both aligned with the city’s renewed 
emphasis on improved connectivity for economic development aims and 
accommodated federal law, which obligates the city to allow 
“non-discriminatory access” in public rights of way to telecom carriers.

State law also has changed, with a newly approved Wireless Consumer and 
Advanced Infrastructure Act that establishes new access and regulation 
rules for small cellular facilities on public infrastructure.

Per its proposed agreement with the city, NMSURF, a local provider, 
would provide fiber-to-the-premises internet to residences and 
businesses at ultra-fast gigabit speeds. Alisha Catanach, a company 
spokesperson, said its first phase would reach as many as 500 businesses 
and homes.

Cyber Mesa and Plateau Telecommunications would be permitted to use the 
city right of way for their telecommunication services, according to 
their proposed agreements. Conterra Ultra Broadband, a telecommunication 
provider based in Charlotte, N.C., would construct a fiber-optic network 
connecting public schools to the Santa Fe school district’s central 
office, with the option to expand to other businesses, schools and 
organization.

The fifth franchise arrangement, with a Broadband Network of New Mexico, 
meanwhile, would allow that company to install new poles in public 
rights of way and lease space there to others’ antennas and fiber-optic 
cable, according to a city fiscal write-up.

“What that means for our system overall is we increase resilience,” 
Brown said, adding that the city sought to mirror the terms in the new 
state law.

The Broadband Network franchise, of the five, should “provide the 
greatest near-term improvement” of connectivity, said City Councilor 
Mike Harris, who sponsored the five franchise proposals.

But “all of the franchisees should add to the efficiency of telecom 
services in our city over time,” Harris added.

The movement is drawing favorable responses from some who keep a close 
eye on the effect mediocre connectivity has had on Santa Fe business, 
tourism and everyday life.

“We favor a public-private partnership around broadband and wireless, 
and I think that’s what’s happening,” said Simon Brackley of the Santa 
Fe Chamber of Commerce. “The city is meeting with the providers to 
determine how to create the most competitive and reliable service 
throughout the community. There’s definitely optimism.”

At least one local telecom company representative, who asked not to be 
identified so as not to jeopardize the company’s relationship with the 
city, questioned the City Hall sales pitch.

“This whole business of, ‘It’s going to benefit Santa Fe by increasing 
competition and getting more fiber in the ground,’ well, that’s purely a 
justification to impose the franchise fee,” the representative said, a 
reference to a 2 percent imposition on the companies’ gross charges 
included in each of the city’s proposed agreements.

City memos show the revenue from franchise fees is unknown but is 
expected to be minimal and decline “as new competition lowers the retail 
rates on which most of the fees are based.” The Broadband Network 
agreement will require one-time and annual franchise fees depending on 
the number of poles installed and the number of antennas co-located 
there.

“We are absolutely not doing this because it is somehow an opportunity 
for the city to try to generate more revenues,” Brown said. “We are 
advocating and supporting the passage of these five franchises because 
we think it will service those strategic goals: greater reliability, 
greater broadband access across our whole city and particularly in those 
areas that are currently underserved, and creating a greater 
competitions landscape to drive down costs. We expect that to happen.”

Of course, in Santa Fe, there are those who hope it won’t.

Firstenberg — alongside fellow plaintiffs Monika Steinhoff and the Santa 
Fe Alliance for Public Health and Safety — filed a federal lawsuit 
against the city earlier this year. It contends the city’s recent 
telecommunication ordinance changes, as well as former Mayor Javier 
Gonzales’ emergency proclamation allowing temporary Verizon 
installations, should be struck down as they violate the constitutional 
rights of residents who claim sensitivities to radio frequencies.

The lawsuit claimed such residents “will no longer be safe in their 
homes, at work, or while traveling on the public streets,” and that 
homes and businesses will be rendered “uninhabitable and unusable.”

A senior U.S. judge dismissed the complaint earlier this month. 
Firstenberg said he is investigating an appeal.

The five franchise agreements are scheduled to come before the City 
Council for public hearings May 9.

“We are raising the alarm,” Firstenberg said. But, he added, referring 
to last year’s ordinance change, and the court dismissal, “A lot of 
people are discouraged.”



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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