New small cell 5g mobile network towers will have to follow some design guidelines when they begin increasingly popping up around Manhattan. The City Commission unanimously approved aesthetic standards and a placement prioritization for the towers in public right of ways Tuesday.
5g networks will deliver users much higher rates of data to their devices with an incredibly speedy connection. The network is touted as being necessary for things like autonomous vehicles to function. 5g networks will require smaller towers to be spread around cities more frequently than current network generations, possibly every city block. There are currently 47 small cell towers around Manhattan. The FCC in 2018 issued a ruling that cities could not outright prohibit internet service companies from installing small cell facilities in public right of ways and had limited regulatory power over them. Regulations can’t force service providers to share a pole in a right of way, make them locate on a utility pole or make it so difficult that that they could not install their poles to provide their service. Cities can require service providers to follow design guidelines of the districts they are building in, including the routing of power underground where that is required.
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