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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I -:r:~CHNOLOGY : I ()~ ~ ~J rJ II- l~t- &0 FroDl Fancy New Phones, ~ Big--Local Revenue Possibilities M..J. RICHTER If city governments get their acts together now, they can ensure that an innovative communications ser- vice soon to appear throughout the country wi!! do more than offer tele. phone service to people on the run. It also can make hefty annual conbibutions to municipal treasuries. "Personal communications selVÍce" is an umbreUa term for a variety of advanced wireless telephone services in which a telephone number is assigned to an individual carrying a purse- or pocket-sized portabJe phone, rather than to that person's home or office. In other words, anyone making a PCS call dials a person, not a place. pcs systems wfll be based on hun- dreds of small transmitter-receivers placed throughout metropoljtan areas, in such places as shopping malls, train sta- tions, hotels, restaurants and office buildings. Myriad PCS networks around the country will be linked to the re~ar national "Wireline" telephone netwo'tk as well. With such nationwide interconnec- tion, a caller in Miami; for example, will be able to dial a PeS subscriber's num- ber in Denver, not knowing that the subscriber happens to be in Chicagç for the day. After a few unanswered rings at the Denver home, the call goes back to the local phone company's Denver switching center. In the meantime, the PCS subscriber's portable phone, wlúch has the same number as the subscriber's Denver home phone, has been alerting the PCS system, via radio signals. of its cutrent location in Chicago. The Denver switching center, after checking its data. base for the PCS subscriber's current location. then routes the call to Chicago. In chicago, the calJ is routed &om the regular wireline phone system to the pes system and then to Ùie PCS sub- scriber's portable, phone. The PCS elements that promise a new source of revenue for municipal governments are the small transmitter- receivers, or "microcells," installed 88 GOVERNING May 1994 throughout cities. More often than not, these microceHs wiH be plaoeà along public rights-of-way adjacent to utility easements and streets. It will be nearly impossible for any PCS network opera- tor to establish a full-blown PCS system in any city without obtaining right-of- way access, for which cities can-and should-charge a fee. The first city government to spot this potential source of additional revenue was St, Petersburg, Florida. The cHy passed a PCS ordi- nance way back in 1989, when PeS sys- tems were stjll just a gleam in the col- lective eye of the telecommunications indusby. The St. Petersburg ordinance requires each PCS applicant to pay the city a one- time pennit request fee of $50 per micro- cell site, plus an annuaJ fee of $100 per microcell site. Given the topology of the St. Petersburg area, a PCS system probably wi]] requite about 300 such mícrocells. In addition, the ordinance requires that a PCS system operator pay St. Petersburg 5 percent of the annual gross revenues brought in by the pes system. E, Eugene Webb, assistant director of information and communications services for the city of St. Petersburg, estimates that the 5 percent fee could put about $1 million per year into the city coffers from each pes provider. CUlTently, the city derives about that much from the 5 percent franchise fee paid by the cable TV system operator for access to the city-owned right-of- way for its cables. The St. Petersburg ordinance is also the city's vehicle for regulating pes operators. Microcells cannot be located City of 51, Petersburg, P.O. 8QX 2842 St. Petersburg, FIQnda 33731 on residential property, for example, To obtain a pennit to instal] microcells on commerciaJ property, a PSC applicant must submit detailed design specifica- tions for each proposed microcell site, along with a signed permission form from the property owner. Violators face stiff fines. The ordinance is designed to make life easier for wouJd-be PCS providers by clearly spelling out all mUnicipal require- ments. An operator can me for appropri- ate pennits and right- of-way access, then go into business, without having to jump through any more bureaucratic hoops. Webb argues that all city governments should get some kind of ordinance on the books before the Fed· eral CDmmunications Commission begins the auctioning of licenses for the portion of the radio spectrum set aside for PCS. Currently, that license auction is sched- uled to begin this June, but ongoing debates within the FCC about basic PCS regulations may delay it until next year. When it does take place, the fed- eral government expects to raise about ' $10 billion. "If companies are going to be putting that much money into this up front, cities better get something on the books right now, rather than when they've got an army oflawyers standing there whose job it is to get these systems in place," Webb says. 'They'll just roll over local governments at that point." m Webb and his colleagues in 51. Peters- burg have put together four model ordi- narwes that other cities could use as tem- plates for their respective jurisdictions. Webb can be reached at 813-893-7050. CounCI!-Manager Governmenl Telephone, (813) 893.7171