[Scan-DC] Ocean City's deal with Crown Castle
Alan Henney
alan at henney.com
Sat Feb 2 02:31:07 EST 2019
Council Delays Decision On Nine New Cell Towers In Neighborhoods
Shawn J. Soper
Managing Editor
OCEAN CITY -- Despite a scaled-back proposal that dropped one Ocean City
community from consideration, a decision on the installation of cell phone
towers in certain residential areas of the resort was again tabled.
In December, representatives of the private-sector company Crown Castle
announced a proposal to install small cell towers in certain north-end
residential neighborhoods in the interest of improving wireless data
service. As far back as 2015, Crown Castle announced a proposal to install
as many as 90 Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), or small cell phone
towers, at locations throughout Ocean City including many of the resort’s
residential areas.
The small towers, often mounted on existing light poles and other
utilities, are needed to expand bandwidth and improve Internet
accessibility in the densely populated resort, particularly in the summer
months.
Crown Castle’s proposal pitched in December included Little Salisbury,
Caine Keys, Caine Keys II, Caine Woods, Montego Bay and Heron Harbor, for
example. At that time, the council voted down the proposal, largely because
of objections from the Montego Bay community, but left the door open for
the company to return with a proposal for other residential communities
identified for service.
During Tuesday’s work session, Crown Castle officials pitched a scaled-back
proposal for nine small cell towers excluding Montego Bay. Couched against
the backdrop of this Sunday’s Super Bowl, Crown Castle Government Relations
Specialist Trey Spear said the demand for wireless data in Ocean City
during the peak summer months dwarfs the needs of a host city for the NFL’s
championship game, necessitating the need for more and more small cell
sites.
“Just like Super Bowl sites have to prepare for the inundation of the host
city, you have to prepare for the inundation of your wireless service in
the height of summer,” he said. “The demand on your wireless service in
July is the equivalent of 17 Super Bowls.”
Spear said the various wireless service providers bring in what are called
cells on wheels, or cows, during the summer season to meet the usage
demand, particularly in the downtown areas. As the name implies, the cows
are temporary solutions to increased wireless demand and are removed during
the off-season.
By adding more small cell towers throughout the resort, the demand would be
met and the need for Cows would slowly be diminished. Council Secretary
Mary Knight questioned if the Cows meet the seasonal demand, were more and
more small cell towers needed throughout the resort.
“If the Cows work and we only need them in the summer months, why wouldn’t
that be a good solution,” she said. “Maybe we wouldn’t need these towers
all over the residential areas.”
Crown Castle engineer J.D. McCloskey said the cows do work, but the speed
and quality of service are weaker than the small cell towers.
“One thing to realize, as we become more dependent on data, you get better
quality of service with the small cell towers,” he said. “The whole town is
basically sharing one pipeline for data. The user experience is
significantly degraded during the summer months.”
More:
https://mdcoastdispatch.com/2019/01/31/council-delays-decision-on-nine-new-cell-towers-in-neighborhoods/
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