Mr. Chairman and Committee members, good morning.
AB-965 bill is inconsistent with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The 1996-TCA Conference report was recognized by the US Supreme Court in its 2005 ruling in Abrams vs Palos Verdes as the definitive source of the legislative intent of the 1996-TCA.
The 1996-TCA Conference Report says:
“It is not the intent of this provision to give preferential treatment to the personal wireless service industry in the processing of requests, or to subject their requests to any but the generally applicable time frames for zoning decision.”
AB-965 represents a direct conflict with the congressional intent of the 1996-TCA.
Wireless companies have had over five years to get all the permits they needed in any city in California. You cannot blame the cities for wireless cos. not achieving their co. business goals.
Cities and counties can already do batch processing. Batch processing should only be recommended in areas where it is needed. It is not needed in at least 90% of the state.
If you give Big Telecom more favors but no requirements forcing them to provide service to the underserved, they will not provide it. The history over the last 30 years proves that.
Big Telecom will use this bill to overwhelm local planning departments in order to circumvent local zoning codes.
Let me give you a principle, Members. If something is planned well, it will work out well – if you let it. But if you change course in the middle, you often find out that you wish you had stuck with your original plan. What is California’s plan for broadband and telecommunications?
It is a mix of wired broadband and wireless telecommunications with an emphasis on wired broadband: fiber optics or coaxial cables directly to homes and businesses.
The NTIA of the federal government is administering the federal grants on the BEAD funds to the states; and the NTIA says wired broadband is the way to go.
Two years ago California passed SB 156 re: broadband in California. It was passed unanimously in both houses in July of 2021.
It created the Department of Technology and the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy and allocated $2 billion for this. The CPUC and the Department of Technology and other agencies are working on this. So why would you undermine their efforts and why would you sabotage their work?
CPUC decision 22-04-055 says:
“Application Criteria. Consistent with federal rules, the ACR proposed that approved projects must deliver, upon project completion, service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100 Megabits per second.”
Wireless cannot meet this requirement at scale. Actual data proves that actual 45/5G download speeds top out below 50 Mbps and its upload speeds are at least ten times less.
Please stay the course, don’t get distracted and please don’t get fooled again. Pleases vote NO on AB-965.