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U S WEST Communications 426 North Fairview Room 101 SI. Paul, MN 55104 Wireless llj.~ST Wednesday 18 September 1996 To Whom It May Concern: us WEST Communications is schcduled to deploy II wireless Pasonal Communications System (PCS) for the MinneapolislSl Paul Twin Cities area in 3Q 91. The intent oCthe depl9Ycd system will be to provide ubiquitous wirelas services to the Twin Cities communities. It is the goal of this letter to outline the reasons that US W cst must request Special/Conditional Use Permits in some areas of your community. Distinguishing features (rom conventional Cellular scrvices currefulyaval1ablc will be the PCS system's voice quality, capacity and coverage dciM. Utilizing Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) tcchnology. US WESrs system will provide voice. quality that compares.favorably to landline quality with sitC capacity capabilities of approximately six times thAt of an analog cell site. In addition, sine: US WEST intends to utilize PCS :lS an ntrordah\.: Wireless Local Loop service, Coverage at the neighborhood level is dSendal(unlilce Cellulu, which is typiaUy a. high-cost, mobile service). Coverage: One of the major and most visibl~ differences between PCS and Cellular systems is the area of' coverage of an individual cell. Due to the: higha' frequency of op~tion, PCS cells will have considct1.bly smaller coverage are:l$ than Cellular celts. (For purely coverage. all things except frequency being equal, to cover ~ given tIl'CIl at the PCS ti'cqucncy (1900 MHz) versus the Cellular frequency (900 MHz) requires 2.3 times more cells). Every anempt h.as been made by US WEST to loc:au: sic.:s in 7.OlteabJe arC3S, pref'erably currently occupied by Cellular providers. However, as a result of the higher frequency of oper:1uon and the desire to provide truly ubiquitous seNice to ~he Twin Cities metro area, US WEST will be rcquircl to build sites in areas tha.t ban not been util~~ by the: existing Cel1ular providers. Additionally, since the cover:ige footprint ofPCS cells is smaller, there is much less "slack" allowed in the: systcm design (i.c. me tolcmtce for.moving siteS is less) and there is much less ability to relOc:aIe siteS and cover restrictive districtS from 11 disrauce. C.p.city: CDlvtA ~cchnology has an inherent capacity advantage over comp.uable (CWTent) analog tec:hnolopc:s. A conservative calculaIion putS chis capacity adv3.l1t3f;e ax six times for comparable operating bandwidths. In additIon. given that US WEST ~Il deploy (due to the: higher opcnting ftcquency) up to twice the number ofsitd required by a Cellular oper:;1tor for c;ovcruge, the overall PCS capacity advantage itlcreases to rw~Iv, tImu. So, although the higher operating frequency directly traltSlares into an incrcsed numb~r of sites requiring zoning. nothing is forfeited - and in f'act gains Il'1: made. in traffie canying capacities. It can be: meed t.h\:l"cfore that coverage. not capacity, tc:nds to be the initia.l driver' for cell site location:. Conclusion: Higher operating frequencies ~cdy nwsl:ltes into increased cell count and less tIc;cibility in site loauion in designing wireless communications systemS. Insofar as is possible, US WEST has designed a. wireless PCS system for the Twin Cities metrO area that anempts to work within allowable zonin~ ordinances without compromising the intcnd~ savic:c: CC'quirements of the symm.. [n spplying for SpcciallConditiona.1 Use P:nni"ts. it should be undcmood that to the best 1cnowledge of US WEST's Systo=t\ dtsi&ners all reasona.ble a.venues of design modification "ha.ve: been c:xha.usted. S incc:rcly, }JJrv~ ':.! Laurence: P. Nolan Senior Radio Ft'l:qucnc:y En&incc:r US Wat Communic:uions. toe;. Wireless