CTIA, America’s largest wireless industry trade group and lobbyist, commissioned a research consultant to produce a six-page analysis that unsurprisingly concludes stripping some oversight responsibilities regarding cell tower placement would reduce the cost to deploy 5G wireless small cells by as much as $1.6 billion over the next nine years.

The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering industry-friendly proposals that would “streamline” and “modernize” the historic and environmental regulatory requirements for wireless deployments, exclude small cells from certain federal regulatory reviews, and put a strict limit on completing environmental impact reviews on new tower and antenna installations or else they will be automatically approved.

The Accenture analysis, produced at the request of CTIA, claims that it will cost an average of $9,730 for each 5G small cell regulatory review. But the report also states only 28-29% of installations will face this type of review. The CTIA implies it is much worse than that in its new 30-second ad complaining about regulatory burdens. That ad suggests 5G small cell “approval can take a couple of years.”

As the FCC ponders further deregulation of cell tower and antenna placement, wireless industry players are sharing their horror stories with the FCC to strengthen the agency’s likely  view that installation rules and oversight should be relaxed.

In January, Sprint complained it faced a demand to pay a $90,000 “tribal review fee” for six tower upgrades in the Chicago area. The company claims the towers were located in historic preservation areas, but not in areas of tribal significance. Sprint added in its letter to the FCC it only planned to install additional antenna equipment at those tower sites to increase capacity, not erect new towers.

The wireless industry is also lobbying to get cut-rate access to public infrastructure like street lights, on which it eventually plans to place 5G network equipment.

In states like California, AT&T has pushed hard for new legislation that would mandate cities and counties to give the company open access to public infrastructure in public rights-of-way or utility easements. In a 2017 bill before the California Senate, companies like AT&T would face a fee limit of $100-850 per small cell per year, indexed for inflation,

With multiple wireless companies prepared to enter the 5G marketplace, utility poles could get crowded.

Cities and counties may also find their right to object to what eventually ends up on their poles curtailed as a result of the deregulation effort.

CTIA’s new 30-second advertisement claims 5G small cells can be installed in about 90 minutes, but only after waiting years for a sluggish review process. (30 seconds)

Many parts of the island of Puerto Rico remains in a total communications blackout after Hurricane Maria decimated the territory’s utility networks, with many mayors warning some communities won’t have restored service until “sometime in 2018.”

Stop the Cap! has collected information about the actual state of Puerto Rico’s telecommunications networks after the Federal Communications Commission admitted it has incomplete information as a result of the voluntary nature of its Disaster Information Reporting System. Some providers have no way to submit reports to the FCC and there have been questions about whether the submitted reports are “unrealistic and optimistic,” and don’t always indicate whether service has been restored to an equivalent level in place before the hurricane.

Javier (we are omitting his last name to protect his job) is a senior engineer at one of Puerto Rico’s larger telecom companies. He has communicated with us for over a year, primarily on events surrounding Puerto Rico’s cable industry on the island and media consolidation issues. Early this morning, we heard a candid assessment of the situation in Puerto Rico, where he lives and works.

“It is completely catastrophic down here to the point where you feel paralyzed, unsure of where to begin cleaning up,” Javier shared with us. “It looks like the eastern and northern parts of Puerto Rico got the worst the storm, but there are lots of areas on the western half of the island nobody has heard from since the storm. There is absolutely no communications with some of what we think are the most vunerable communities. The news media has taken helicopters into some of these areas and stations like WAPA are reporting there is life, but water is in short supply and the destruction is unbelievable — nothing Puerto Ricans can recall during their lifetime.”

Javier reports anyone moving between towns outside of the urban areas needs an all terrain vehicle with plenty of gas and a chainsaw to clear debris from the roads. Many are not passable because bridges have been washed out or collapsed. His job of late is utility infrastructure inspection and the news is not good.

“A lot of this island’s electrical transmission network is probably going to be rebuilt from the ground up,” he reports. “There are towers — many metal or concrete, that are completely bent over or fallen, and some of the higher voltage lines are going the take weeks just to reach because they are blocked by the huge number of trees down. Many are in such a compromised state, they are still toppling over. Some cell towers collapsed over the weekend, so it can be very dangerous to climb these.”

Javier says some parts of the island have gotten desperate for food and water, followed by safe housing and access to telecommunications to let distant family members know how they are doing.

“Many Puerto Ricans are not kidding themselves, and they expect they will not be treated the same as hurricane victims in Florida and Texas, in part because of the territory’s status in the United States and the fact its needs have usually been ignored or cut short by Washington. Local and state officials have tried to maintain a positive attitude about the relief effort and have repeatedly thanked first responders, FEMA, and the Trump Administration, but there are clear signs the goodwill is straining as days pass with inadequate relief. It threatens to become worse than Hurricane Katrina.”

“We know there is a transportation issue between Miami and Puerto Rico, but we also know other Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic and Cuba are either providing credible aid that is getting through, or will be soon. The same is not consistently true with the United States,” Javier notes.

Puerto Rico’s cell phone network remains almost completely offline, with some small exceptions in larger communities like San Juan, where one-third of the city’s cell towers are back up and running, often on generator power.

“Providers have claimed, without credibly knowing, that their towers are offline because of power interruptions, but once they visit those cell sites they will find a number of them have been badly damaged and will need to be replaced,” Javier said. “Some of the towers being reported restored are working because of temporary low-power portable cell sites that do not have the coverage of the original tower, but something is better than nothing.”

The FCC claims more than 90% of the island remains without cell service, and virtually 100% are without cable or landline service. Residents and officials on the ground confirm that, with some minor exceptions, and note the most reliable service they have are the satellite phones provided by FEMA and kept in government offices. Some private businesses like Home Depot also have them. Satellite internet access is available in some rural locations, and where it works, it has attracted large crowds of locals trying to connect to the outside world to get messages through.

“The Dominicans are supplying Puerto Rico with backup generators for cell towers which will help, but we will need an army of people to help clear damaged infrastructure before we can repair or replace it,” writes Javier.

Those satellite phones and very limited internet access have allowed some important reports to get through. Univision is collecting regular reports at least daily from various social networking communities and publishing regular updates. We have collected the latest telecom-related developments to share with readers.

ADJUNTAS

Mayor Jaime Barlucea Maldonado: “We have not lost lives and access to all neighborhoods is enabled,” explained Barlucea who also said he has re-established communications with San Juan via Ponce. Tertiary roads are impassable and residents in Utuado cannot cross through Adjuntas. Half the area has no drinking water, doctors fled the health center and medicines are almost gone.

Besides the government communications network, ordinary residents do not have reliable landline or wireless service at this time.

AGUADA

The government confirmed two deaths — both police officers who drowned in a river. Mayor Manuel Gabina, said the town is “devastated” and that there are eight thousand families that lost everything they owned, including their homes. The Guanabanos and Jaguey Chiquito bridges are “damaged or about to collapse.”

Gabina collected enough supplies to last the town a month, but “water and shelter for the displaced” are in short supply, as are supermarkets and gas stations. Phone service is somewhat working in Aguada and Moca, and locals are sharing phone lines to stay in touch.

AGUADILLA

Aguadilla was spared the worst of the storm and food and water has already reached this municipality and the airport is now prepared to receive military-supplied relief flights. Road cleanup is ahead of schedule and Wi-Fi access is returning in some areas like the Burger King on PR-2 highway. Families have flocked there to send messages out.

AGUAS BUENAS

Mayor Javier García Pérez reported that some 3,000 families lost their residences in Aguas Buenas. The worst affected areas are Santa Clara, Las Corujas sector, Parcelas Bayamoncito, and the neighborhood of Juan Asencio. There is a major water shortage and many of the transmission towers for electricity and wireless service have collapsed.

“We are more likely to have water than electricity first,” said the mayor. There is no working cell service, the hospital is closed, and roads have been gridlocked because of reports six gas stations are open in the community.

AIBONITO

Mayor Willie Alicea reported this morning the entire area is still without cell phone or internet access. But relief did arrive in some forms:

• 40,000 gallons of gas arrived.
• Commercial businesses are open, operating and serving food.
• The supermarkets are open.
• About 2,500 volunteers are clearing the roads, helping with traffic and in operations.
• All roads are open to vehicular traffic with the exception of the Cuyón neighborhood.

AÑASCO

In Añasco, the roads are still blocked and communication is scarce, at best. No significant reports since Sunday.

ARECIBO

On its Facebook page, the municipal government indicated that damages in the city were “disastrous” and that “no area of ​​Arecibo has the resources of water, electricity and communications.” Some areas of the municipality are still isolated. At least three bridges collapsed in the municipality: one in the neighborhood Jaguar, another in Bajadero and one between Calichoza and Esperanza.

Promised diesel fuel has not arrived.

ARROYO

There is very little updated information available about the municipality of Arroyo. A few that managed to enter the outskirts report it was unrecognizable because of the destruction. All cell towers have been destroyed. Temporary antennas are expected… eventually. The damaged utility infrastructure is, in some cases, hanging directly above or near the roads.

BARCELONETA

Town has water but no electricity. Gasoline is usually not available. Cellular service is possible if you go to the outskirts of town.

BARRANQUITAS

Large sections of community unrecognizable because of lack of vegetation and number of homes destroyed. Electric and phone cables are on the ground “everywhere” and there is no road service between Barranquitas and Naranjito. Obviously, communications are sporadic.

BAYAMÓN

Cell service sporadic but functional in some areas. This area survived Maria with less damage than others.

CABO ROJO

Mayor Roberto Ramírez is going door to door with a satellite phone to every home in the community allowing relatives to communicate with family members. The main roads in and out of the area are walkable, but cannot be driven on. The mayor reports 50% of homes are total losses.

CAGUAS

Some areas of the municipality have communication via cell phone.

CAMUY

The northern half of the town’s utility services have been completely obliterated. At least 460 homes destroyed and 642 uninhabitable. There is a major water shortage and residents are being told to drink nearby river water.

CANÓVANAS

The Red Cross is in town passing out snack packs. Rural roads are collapsed and impassable. Telecom services are spotty.

CAROLINA

Doing better than some. All urban roads are open. Mayor Jose Carlos Aponte reports 95% of rural roads open and 30% of bridges have been cleaned of debris.

“Carolina suffered a great impact and is seen with the great amount of residences of wood and zinc that were destroyed by the strong winds. The areas of Barrazas, Cacao, Santa Cruz and Carruzo were the most affected,” he said.

Utility infrastructure has been seriously damaged and will have to be rebuilt.

CATAÑO

Cataño has suffered some of the worst flooding caused by Hurricane Maria as it passed through the island. About 60% of the 28,000 people in the town are now homeless and in some areas, 80% of structures were damaged.

The mayor of Cataño, Felix Delgado Montalvo, said Tuesday that municipal officials are trying to visit every residence in the municipality to bring aid to the victims and asked people to be calm.

Nearly 1,000 utility poles fell in the community and will need to be replaced.

CAYEY

Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velázquez told WKAQ 580 AM on Monday that the municipality already has opened access to all communities, vehicular traffic or walking. The community was hit hard, but the city authorities are handing out bottled water and the town has enough food on hand.

In this municipality there are complete sectors of communities in Farallón, Guavate and El Polvorín that lost their wooden houses. Access to neighboring municipalities like Cidra, Aibonito, Guayama and Salinas is limited at the moment.

CEIBA

A “desolate environment” with lots of vegetation, blocked streets and families affected. Reporter Bárbara Figueroa reports that the governor’s house was “totally destroyed.”

The state of telecommunications in the area is unknown.

CIALES

All the bridges of Ciales collapsed with the passage of Hurricane Maria, Angel Perez, director of the Emergency Management Center told local media.

There is extensive damage to homes, fallen ceilings, destroyed walls, lack of water and electricity.

CIDRA

On its roads there are fallen trees, branches, traffic lights, roofs and signs on the ground, as shown by a tour of El Nuevo Dia by the municipality.

Road 172, which leads from Caguas to Cidra, “is devastated, totally destroyed,” said Cidra Mayor Javier Carrasquillo in an interview with Primera Hora. Virtually all power lines and cement posts are on the ground, he added.

COAMO

A San Juan resident said that in the absence of communication with part of her family, she made a trip to Coamo to see how they were.

“Most of the damage was to wooden structures, zinc roofs, and glass,” said Isabella Scalley Fernandez. “There are many trees and power lines on the ground.”

COMERÍO

According to El Nuevo Día, the mayor of Comerío, Josian Santiago expressed concern about shrinking water and fuel supplies. Some parts of the area resemble a third world country and are still inaccessible.

Looters struck a warehouse of the Econo supermarket after the hurricane and stripped the warehouse clean of supplies.

“It was a scene worthy of a zombie series or movie,” the paper said.

Power and electricity may not be back until sometime in 2018.

COROZAL

This mountainous, rural area took a severe beating and remains mostly inaccessible, but some expeditions found the local population did survive the storm. Utility infrastructure decimated.

CULEBRA

The island of Culebra, 85 miles east of Puerto Rico, is a major staging ground for hurricane relief for the main island. There remains a lack of electricity, but that is primarily because the island relies on a diesel generator to supply power. With deliveries spotty, electricity could go in and out of service. The island has communication problems and has not been able to communicate with the central government. To the east of Culebra and in high elevation areas, some cell service is available. That is where people are flocking to try and communicate with their friends and families on Puerto Rico.

DORADO

There is no water or communications, except at the airport.

FAJARDO

The ports of Vieques, Fajardo and Culebra have reopened, local Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón reported Monday afternoon at a press conference at the Convention Center. The official said that these ports are “open and operational for the transportation of passengers.” However, he clarified that the traffic will be “restricted” by the lack of electricity.

Thousands of utility poles were knocked down in the storm, taking the wiring with them. Cell service is spotty, but some Claro customers are getting limited service.

FLORIDA

Most of the homes in Florida were flooded and suffered some damage. The municipality is without electricity and without water. All utility cables are on the ground. Unless a residence was constructed of concrete, it no longer exists. There is no telecom service in Florida.

GUÁNICA

Most of the community’s utility services no longer exist because of downed wires and fallen poles.

GUAYANILLA

Survived better than many. Its biggest problem seems to be establishing contact with San Juan.

GUAYNABO

Significant damage. Cell service did better in this area than most, with 20% of the cell towers working. Several banks and businesses are already resuming operations in several municipalities. Looting has grown to be a problem, however. So have curfew violations.

GURABO

Another area with decimated telecom infrastructure. Utility networks may have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

HATILLO

Hatillo Mayor Jose “Chely” Rodriguez said that “hundreds and hundreds” of homes in his municipality were destroyed. “It’s catastrophic.”

Facebook users indicate the only phone service for miles is at the Home Depot, which is lending out satellite phones residents are using to contact families and friends.

HORMIGUEROS

There is very little information about Hormigueros. The National Meteorological Service extended to this Tuesday at 8:30 pm the flood warning for Hormigueros, among other villages in the west, interior and central north of the island with warning of possible floods. The electric grid was essentially destroyed, but the town’s infrastructure fared better. The only news the town gets is from the radio.

HUMACAO

Fared reasonably well in comparison to some other areas. Its utility infrastructure was damaged, but is repairable and restorable.

ISABELA

The damaged Guajataca Dam continues to endanger Isabela. If it fails, it could seriously endanger Isabela. The National Weather Service extended the flood alert until Wednesday at 2:00 pm due to a possible total failure of the dam.

Mayor Carlos Altieri reports “terrible” damage to buildings and 80% of the electrical infrastructure is gone. Drinking water supplies have dwindled in Isabela and five other towns in the area. The local hospital is no longer air-conditioned and there is a medicine shortage. The mayor admitted he can no longer communicate with the authorities in San Juan due to growing telecommunications outages. Also, his satellite phone no longer works.

JAYUYA

Completely inaccessible except by helicopter. The town is completely cut off and incommunicado.

JUANA DÍAZ

Also effectively inaccessible due to fallen bridges. Significant damage and supplies dwindling.

JUNCOS

Claro reported it is working to reestablish the mobile network in the area and 20% in the municipality of Juncos had service again. There are two gas stations open in the area, with lines that stretched for more than half a mile. Supermarkets are rationing the sale of food.

LAJAS

Lajas has no electricity or telecom services working except some limited cell service from Claro in some areas. Most mobile phones have no lost their charge and with no way to recharge them, it may not make much difference. Most are traveling to Mayagüez or Ponce if they want to make or receive calls reliably.’

LARES

Although telecommunications service is out, the community fared acceptably well if you weren’t impacted by a landslide. But bodies in area graveyards were scattered all over the area, creating a potential health risk.

LAS MARÍAS

Although less is known about what is happening on the western half of Puerto Rico, the secretary of the governor, William Villafañe, managed to visit Las Marías, one of the municipalities where the least official information has gotten out due to difficulty to accessing then area and the lack of roads. There is significant damage to utility infrastructure, and this area is unlikely to get attention before larger communities have service restored.

LAS PIEDRAS

Mayor Miguel López reported the entire area was without power and facilities are severely damaged. At least 90% of utility poles and lines are damaged, likely beyond repair. Wind gusts reached 205mph, which also took out the enormous concrete pylons holding the regional high voltage power lines that act as the island’s electricity backbone. These will have to be rebuilt entirely.

LOÍZA

Flooding did the most damage to infrastructure in this area. Power is completely out, but some families acquired solar panels and are powering some bare essentials with them. This coastal area took significant storm surge damage.

LUQUILLO

The medical center no longer exists and looting of alcohol and the antisocial behavior that accompanies it is becoming a serious problem. The town has no functioning communication with the outside world.

MANATÍ

“My people do not have water, people are collecting water from a swimming pool,” said the mayor of Manatí José Sánchez in an interview with newspaper Nuevo Dia on Monday morning on the impossibility of solving problems with water supply. “I cannot make excuses that they have to do tests when we have a faucet. I can warn the inhabitants that it is not drinkable but we need to get water soon.”

“All the municipalities in my district are incommunicado,” said Rodríguez Aguiló. “There is not a single wooden house that has not been damaged. The damage to the electrical system was serious, as was the deforestation in Ciales, Manatí and Florida.”

MARICAO

This town has not been heard from since the hurricane. No information available.

MAUNABO

“Almost all of the structures are damaged. Many wooden houses suffered total loss,” the municipality explained.

El Nuevo Día reported looting at the Maunabo Diagnostic and Treatment Center, which began after the roof was blown during the hurricane and flooded. The members of the Office of Emergency Management, who went to the site to settle the robbery, moved the equipment to the municipal headquarters.

Manaubo is incommunicado. In Maunabo, 11 of the 12 telecommunication towers that allow cell phones to function are out of order, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its latest report.

MAYAGUEZ

Evelyn Vázquez, a senator in Puerto Rico, reported mayors in the western zone of Puerto Rico were supplied with satellite phones so they can stay in touch with San Juan authorities. But many and lending the phones out to residents to alert friends and families about their status. The cost – up to $10 a minute, is irrelevant to both island and federal government authorities. The mayor of Mayagüez says the first urgency is water and gas in western areas. Then electricity and telecommunications services can be restored once basic needs are met. In many western communities there is a lack of potable water, bread, coffee, and ice. Diesel is also in short supply, which worries public officials because of the impossibility of generator power without adequate fuel.

Utility infrastructure was reportedly in the poorest condition on the western side of Puerto Rico, some more than 50 years old and barely inspected. Almost all of that succumbed to the hurricane force winds, landslides, or flooding. Timely upgrades may have made a difference, but now the much greater expense of rebuilding the networks from scratch will begin.

MOCA

“The people who have relatives in Moca, do not worry. Everyone has been taken care of. Nobody has died in our town of Moca,” said Mayor Kiko Avilés late Friday. But Moca’s telecom networks are not operating at all and most communities around Moca cannot be reached except by amateur radio. Utility infrastructure was poor before the storm. Now a lot of it is destroyed.

MOROVIS

A lot of damage is still ongoing in the territory because of ongoing landslides after every rain storm. The mayor reports the town was “devastated” and there are continued headaches from major landslides across the region. The San Lorenzo Bridge collapsed leaving no access to Pasto, Vagas, and San Lorenzo. Many area roads are impassible because of downed trees, power lines, and landslides. Volunteers are now attempting to use machetes to cut their way through to incommunicado communities not heard from since the hurricane. There is no communications services working in the area.

NAGUABO

Electrical service, which had been suspended since before the hurricane hit, cannot be restored due to network damage. A public communications center has been established in the parking lot of the Benigno Ramos Coliseum so residents can use satellite phones to communicate with relatives. Access to the area is very difficult from the outside because of the large number of fallen trees. The electrical grid was severely damaged, taking with it the telephone network. As a result utility services have collapsed with no estimate when they can be resumed.

NARANJITO

There have been few updates from this town. The mayor reported “massive destruction” but no loss of life. The community’s most vulnerable areas were emptied before the hurricane with a mandatory evacuation. Pedestrian bridges are essentially unusable and PR-811, the main road into town, is completely blocked by masses of debris.

OROCOVIS

No reports since Sunday, when the town complained there was little recovery machinery and no diesel to power it. Local authorities were asking for water and supplies to clear the roads in and out of town. The town’s amateur radio operators successfully established a repeater transmitter that allows Orocovis, essentially in the dead center of the territory, to act as a relay point for messages to and from southern Puerto Rico. The radio service is about the only thing working. Satellite phones are not functioning due to power losses. Wireline and wireless networks are not functioning.

PATILLAS

The municipality of Patillas is located nine miles from Yabucoa, where the eye of the hurricane landed. The area resembles what an area looks like after a major tornado rampages through a town. Utility poles and trees are down, and what trees remain are completely without foliage. The village is without electricity, although some people have generators. There are fallen light poles, cables on the ground, many blocking roads.

PEÑUELAS

“Peñuelas is totally destroyed in terms of structures,” said Mayor Torres Maldonado. “State aid has not arrived.”

Utility networks did not fare well either. A lot of downed power poles and lines have left much of the area without any telecommunications services.

PONCE

Officials report the entire city is without electricity although there are sectors with water. There are trees, electric lines and traffic lights down on roads. One official stated that restoring the Ciudad Señorial will take more than a month. Other areas of Ponce should expect little electricity or telecom service for weeks, although wireless should be restored in urban areas if fiber backhaul infrastructure connecting the cell towers with providers has not been damaged.

QUEBRADILLAS

The mayor, Heriberto Velez, said that hundreds are homeless, there are businesses that lost everything and the number of utility poles broken and on the ground around the village is staggering.

“I never imagined something like this. I did not think this could happen,” Vélez said.

“I’ve worked for the Authority for 26 years, it’s the first time I’ve seen broken concrete posts,” Edwin Alicea said, referring to the “hurricane resistant” concrete utility poles.

RINCÓN

The mayor of Rincón, Carlos López, continues to demand water for his town, as well as fuel and electric generators to maintain the shelter. He compared the impact of the hurricane to a nuclear bomb.

The mayor explained that the municipality, with 15,000 inhabitants, has no water supply and that the situation is very difficult but asked the citizens a little more calm and patience.

RÍO GRANDE

“We have no electricity, no water, no cellular service, and no gas, since the lines at each gas station are hundreds of cars long,” reported one resident. Mayor Angel Bori Gonzalez reported there is no cell service in the area.

SABANA GRANDE

Unconfirmed reports indicate there is limited phone and internet service, but no electricity. Scattered reports suggest there is running water and most of the flooding was in areas that routinely flood in storms. Unfortunately, there is no official confirmation of these reports.

SALINAS

Mayor Karylin Bonilla counted 3,000 wooden houses with zinc roofs damaged by Hurricane Maria. Some can be recovered. Bonilla reported that while there is a lot of damage to the infrastructure, there were no human losses. All residents have been advised that telephone services are expected to be offline for an undetermined amount of time and they should go to the mayor’s house or Carlos Colón Burgos High School to seek or share information.

SAN GERMÁN

There is limited mobile and landline service in this area. Claro had 20% of its network in the area up and running again. Most of the damage in this area was caused by fallen trees. Some callers reported they could get through to landlines, but multiple attempts were required.

SAN JUAN

The mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, said that the priorities of San Juan are: drinking water, hospitals, bedding, and fuel.

Cruz said the capital of Puerto Rico was essentially “destroyed” in the storm, but recovery was now underway. The biggest problems are the number of downed utility poles and traffic signals. The city is without water or power. The city was expecting to receive additional generators that are targeted for cell phone network restoration, despite the fact most cell phone companies claim they already have generators at their cell sites. Most wireless carrier outages, providers claimed, come from inaccessibility to the cell site to refill generator fuel tanks. But now there may be questions about how well prepared providers were with backup equipment and whether it functioned well.

SAN LORENZO

The only cell tower in the area that has remained in service since the hurricane is accessible from the Chayanne Expresso, located adjacent to the tower. It appears to be operating at lower than usual power/signal strength, but calls can be made and received from the area. About 80% of wood residences were damaged in the storm and there is utility infrastructure damage, but not as severe as in other areas.

SAN SEBASTIÁN

No verifiable information available.

SANTA ISABEL

The Mayor of Santa Isabel, Enrique Questell, reported the economic base of the community – agriculture, was devastated.

“We are the capital of agriculture and we lost 100% of agriculture,” Questell said.

There is no power either. Utility poles were knocked down in large masses and will have to be replaced.

TOA ALTA

Received moderate storm damage but repairable. There is no wireline or wireless service functioning in the area and power remains out.

TOA BAJA

The mayor Bernardo ‘Betito’ Márquez informed El Nuevo Día that nine deaths were recorded in Toa Baja and that some of the people would have died drowned after the opening of gates of the Lake La Plata reservoir. The State Emergency Management Agency confirmed that Toa Baja is the most affected municipality in the islands due to flooding, but few evacuated because the area historically had not flooded before. There is no electricity or functioning telecommunications services in the area.

TRUJILLO ALTO

The municipality has no internet, gas stations in service are few and that community volunteers are now cleaning the roads because no help arrived.

Jose Luis Cruz Cruz, mayor of Trujillo Alto, said the municipality was “devastated” and was trying to break through on the main roads to reconnect with the rest of the island. The mayor reported that trees, electric lighting and street poles had fallen, so he asked citizens to be patient while they were cleaning. Outages remain widespread.

UTUADO

Electricity is out and most cell towers remain non-operational.

Univision journalist Carmen Graciela Díaz received information from her father about the precarious situation of this municipality.

“There is no water, there is no light, everything is a horror. It will be a very slow process to recover,” said Victor Diaz, owner of San Miguel Pharmacy in the center of town and life long resident.

But some landline phones are starting to work where infrastructure remains in place.

VEGA ALTA

The Mayor of Vega Alta, Oscar Santiago, reported 90% of the houses of wood and zinc in the municipality of Vega Alta were lost. Vega Alta village officials said they had not been able to reach the Fatima neighborhood and were particularly concerned about residents of a nursing home, according to the AP news agency. There is no way to reach the Fatima community because the bridge collapsed. Power remains out and telecommunications services are very spotty.

VEGA BAJA

In this area the floods reached more than 10 feet. Residents who were stranded shouted “Save me, save me,” using the lights on their cell phones to help rescue crews find them in the dark, said City Mayor Marco Cruz.

Reports indicate despite the flooding, services are being restored and wired and wireless phones are working in some areas intermittently.

VIEQUES

There is no diesel or petrol on the island, which means that the machinery to remove debris cannot work. In addition, the last ferry with provisions arrived in Vieques five days ago, so supplies are running out.

The island’s mayor, Víctor Emeric, “if the Maritime Transport Authority does not return the system as soon as possible, there will be chaos with food, medicines, everything,” he said in a phone call to Primera Hora.

Telecommunications services are out.

VILLALBA

Completely isolated and without reliable communications, Villalba Mayor Luis Javier Hernandez told WKAQ 580 AM that they have been trying to open the main roads of the municipality for three days and that they managed to clear PR-149, PR-150 and open breaches in PR-151 towards Orocovis, but it is unsafe “and can collapse at any time.”

There are numerous communities in the mountainous municipality that “no longer exist” because of “complete destruction,” warned Hernandez. Many rural roads remain impassable even for pedestrians. Food was running out and the mayor was planning to break the locks on area schools and businesses to access food for the community.

YABUCOA

Rafael Surrillo, mayor of Yabucoa, reports 99% of structures in the municipal area collapsed.

Yabucoa is the town on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico where the eye of Hurricane Maria entered and damages were most severe. Communications services are non-existent and there is no electricity.

YAUCO

“To all residents of Yauco, Yauco citizens outside of Puerto Rico and relatives outside of the city, the Honorable Mayor Luigui Torres wants to inform that Yauco has not reported any deaths. There is no communication anywhere in our city.”

If Comcast doesn’t send a check for $176,000 to cover the last three years of pole attachment fees owed to the Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation (STEMC), the electric co-op is prepared to rip Comcast’s lines right off its poles.

Comcast, under a license agreement with the utility, pays a small fee to the utility to place its infrastructure on its utility poles. Comcast has not paid since June 2014, and if the cable giant doesn’t send a check by June 28, STEMC will remove Comcast’s attachments from their poles, knocking out cable service for thousands of customers.

“We’ve been going back and forth with them for going on three years now trying to get payment out of them,” said STEMC chief financial officer Scott Sims.

A notice on STEMC’s website explains Comcast’s foot-dragging isn’t fair to the cooperative:

We regret that some customers may lose their Comcast service.  However, the full cost and maintenance of these utility poles are borne by all members of STEMC, and we cannot allow STEMC members to subsidize Comcast’s services.  We are hopeful that Comcast will make payment prior to the deadline and avoid the need to remove their cable attachments.

Many residents are taking the side of the utility, pointing out Comcast would have shut off their cable service long before Comcast’s three years of non-payment.

A Comcast representative told WREG-TV that STEMC started billing Comcast double what they used to, claiming to have discovered previously unbilled pole attachments. Comcast wanted evidence of these attachments from STEMC, despite the fact they were capable of counting their own cable subscribers in the area, and refused to make a payment until this information was provided. Comcast claims it finally got evidence this month.

“Since receiving that information, we have completed our own audit and are taking the appropriate next steps to arrange for payment in the correct amount,” Comcast said in a released statement. “We look forward to working with STEMC to resolve this issue quickly and ensure that our mutual customers’ services are not disrupted.”

Some of America’s biggest wireless telecom companies are spending millions lobbying Washington and state legislatures for the right to place a myriad of new wireless transmitters and small cells in the public rights-of-way without local communities having much say about where they go and what they look like.

Utility Traffic Jam

Over the next five years, tens of thousands of new “small cell” devices are expected to be placed on utility poles to manage forthcoming wireless services, and that represents a conservative estimate. Every major wireless carrier is contemplating new line-of-sight 5G communications networks that will require a massive deployment of new wireless antennas that will serve a smaller audience of devices than traditional cell towers have. But wireless companies will not be alone. Cable operators are also expected to enter the wireless business, not only to resell other providers’ cellular services but also to deploy new low power, line of sight networks to manage the Internet of Things (IoT), which will wirelessly connect devices ranging from home appliances and heating/cooling systems to vehicles on the road, utility meters, shopping carts, for sale and street vendor signs, traffic signals, and much, much more.

It’s an entirely new world for local governments tasked with approving permit requests to place cellular and wireless infrastructure on private and public lands. With billions to be made managing machine-to-machine communications, smart cars, and expanded wireless internet, every player has a vested interest in making sure local governments don’t impede their potential profits.

That is why companies like AT&T are pushing hard for new limitations on local government objections to their sprouting wireless infrastructure. Their idea is to override local control and shift to their proposed statewide or federal guidelines conveniently favoring them by putting time limits on communities to contemplate an application, eliminating certain rights for local governments to object to those applications, and making certain wireless companies don’t have to pay what they consider excessive fees or taxes to local authorities for the right to use the public space.

For local governments, responsiveness to citizens who have to live next to wireless infrastructure is important, and not only because of pseudo-scientific fears of the health impacts of wireless signal radiation. Aesthetic issues alone often make or break current wireless antenna applications.

The POTs and PANs Blog notes that time is short for local communities to get their wireless infrastructure policies in place for the incoming boom of mini-cell sites and IoT networks.

Pole Refrigerators and 100-Foot Fake Pine Trees

Traditional cell towers are easy to spot because they are tall and very visible with wireless antennas often serving multiple carriers fixed up and down across the tower. The next generation of wireless networks will be powered by much smaller antennas attached to utility and light poles. In some cases where nearby trees can block signals, providers propose new 100-foot tall monopoles, sometimes disguised to resemble a tree — albeit a very, very tall one. To know how those trees could be removed with efficiency, you can learn this here now.

Some early generation “small cells” resemble a compact refrigerator and weigh several hundred pounds. These are usually mounted approximately half to two-thirds up a utility pole and are very visible. Some have loud cooling fans, others need additional infrastructure like external power that will busy-up the utility pole with more cables and supports. In a storm strong enough to take out a utility pole, you would not want to be underneath a falling “small cell.”

The Tree Trimming Flat-Top Haircut is Back

Arborists warn that some early 5G installations have taken a serious toll on nearby trees also in the right-of-way because the technology requires a direct line-of-sight to the antenna. This has resulted in aggressive tree-trimming to keep foliage far away from the small cell, and that trimming sometimes includes reducing the height of nearby trees.

A University of Surrey study found that small cells mounted 10 meters up a pole faced at least a 30% chance of having their signals blocked by trees. At 15 meters, that chance of signal blockage is reduced to 10%. At 25 meters, it is less than 1%. But that would require an 82-foot high utility pole in the neighborhood. The standard utility pole in the United States is about 40 ft (12 m) long. Either aggressive tree trimming or tall utility pole placement to avoid trimming is likely to create controversy in suburban residential neighborhoods.

City planners are being urged to contemplate what kind of enforceable policies they want to permit in the public space set aside for infrastructure, because as author Doug Dawson noted, it’s going to get busy up there:

I doubt that any city is prepared for the possible proliferation of wireless devices. Not only are there four major cellular companies, but these devices are going to be deployed by the cable companies that are now entering the cellular market along with a host of ISPs that want to deliver wireless broadband. There will also be significant demand for placement for connecting private networks as well as for the uses by the cities themselves. I remember towns fifty years ago that had unsightly masses of telephone wires. Over the next decade or two it’s likely that we will see wireless devices everywhere.

Frontier Communications CEO is blaming employees for the company’s deteriorating financial condition and operating performance and has allegedly dropped bonuses and merit pay increases for lower-level employees.

Sources inside Frontier Communications tell Stop the Cap! Frontier CEO Dan McCarthy notified employees in email on March 2 — one week before employees were expecting to receive their annual bonus — the company would no longer be providing bonus compensation for “lower banded management employees.” They hired redundancy representation for employers for this case.

“He implied that he too was affected but I highly doubt that is the case,” one source tells us. “We weren’t notified via a ‘Town Hall’, no conference call, no face to face with our managers, only a cowardly e-mail sent from behind a desk thousands of miles away. Keep in mind that people use that to pay house taxes, medical bills, pay off other bills, pay college tuition, etc, and a week before we were slated to get it we’re told that it isn’t coming.”

McCarthy has been on the hot seat with Wall Street for weeks after reporting yet another quarter where many of Frontier’s most profitable customers are fleeing faster than the company can replace them with new ones. McCarthy also told investors that many of Frontier’s losses in the last quarter were due to the company finally disconnecting service and writing off customers who haven’t paid their Frontier phone bills for as long as a year in acquired former Verizon territories in Florida, Texas, and California.

“There was certainly no suggestion that the big acquisition would pay off in the company’s Q4 earning report when subscriber counts, average revenue per residential user, and quarter-over-quarter revenue all fell,” wrote Daniel B. Kline of TMFDankline. “That has been the pattern in all three quarters since the Verizon deal closed, and while McCarthy has done an excellent job controlling expenses, his excuses for the drop in subscribers have started to sound a bit hollow.”

That effort to “control expenses” may be coming at the expense of customers that Frontier is depending on to stay in business.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last month announced the state was reviewing Frontier’s performance in western New York. A Rochester television station has aired more than a half-dozen stories about deteriorating service quality at Frontier since last summer. After airing the first few stories, the station was inundated with hundreds of complaints about Frontier’s spotty broadband and phone service.

News10NBC (WHEC-TV) reported it can take weeks for a Frontier technician to show up on a service call. Customer service is no help and customers are not getting the services they paid to receive.

Frontier was also implicated last month in knocking a Rochester area radio station off the air. After the company first blamed the radio station’s equipment for the problem, Frontier eventually admitted its own “old infrastructure” was responsible for outages that interrupted broadcasts for hours at a time.

Schneiderman has been focused on keeping New York’s ISPs honest about their speed claims and performance, but service reliability is also increasingly an issue, especially after high winds in a recent storm in western New York left nearly half of the Rochester metro area without essential utilities for several days. Infrastructure upkeep, particularly aging utility poles, is now under investigation by the state’s Public Service Commission. Early evidence revealed local utilities may have underinvested in pole maintenance for years due to cost cutting. Some utility poles in western New York are well over 50 years old, originally placed in the 1950s and 1960s. Hundreds failed in the high winds.

Frontier’s track record of blaming others for their own problems has not been well-received by employees.

“Maggie Wilderotter [former CEO of Frontier Communications] was bad but McCarthy’s leadership is erratic and catastrophic,” shares another Frontier middle management employee wishing to stay anonymous. “McCarthy was defending the regional management autonomy approach as a unique strength for Frontier last summer, now he’s declared that is inefficient and is centralizing management decisions at corporate headquarters. He was selling Wall Street on Frontier’s IPTV project in 2016 by promoting expanded service territories. Now that project is on hold and there are signs Frontier is pulling back on meaningful and long overdue broadband speed upgrades. He recently announced he was reorganizing residential and commercial sales units, something our competitors did long ago and will only disrupt things at Frontier even more. Poor customer service was the result of “on-shoring” our call centers? Not exactly. Poor training and inadequate support have left our call center employees unable to properly handle customer concerns. Employees can reach out to an employment law attorney when facing unjust treatment in the workplace. He also consistently downplayed how nightmarish the Verizon conversion was for our new customers in Florida, Texas, and California. It was bad planning, bad vision, and poor execution and the buck stops with our CEO.”

Another source tells us:

“We worked 60-80 weeks, late nights, weekends, countless hours away from our families to push forward with projects that were horrible for our customers and senior leadership was told to get the job done regardless any way they could. We worked through the AT&T and Verizon conversions. We performed as employees of Frontier. Who did not perform? Those making these horrible financial and planning decisions that caused major outages to former Verizon customers when they finally cut over. Some problems were so severe that many customers decided to leave.”

Frontier insiders tell us the company is on a mission to slash expenses across the board to turn in better financial results that can protect the company’s dividend payout to shareholders and, in turn, executive pay and bonuses. The company is reportedly considering allowing more employees to work from home to cut facilities costs, utilities, and maintenance expenses.

“There have been numerous resignations over this and morale is at an all-time low within the company,” a source tells us.

One of the employees sharing the latest developments reports he has turned in his resignation this month and hired an employment lawyer at HKM.com to get the compensation he deserves.

“I figure I should follow so many of our customers to a company that isn’t great, but at least makes an effort delivering what it promises.”

Frontier’s Problems Afflict Hundreds of Customers in Western N.Y.

WHEC-TV Rochester has been following problems with Frontier Communications since last summer. Until the acquisition of former Verizon customers in Texas, Florida, and California, the Rochester, N.Y. metropolitan area was considered Frontier’s largest legacy city service area. But just like in smaller rural communities, service problems have plagued Frontier, with complaints rolling in about slow or non-existent broadband, landline outages, poor billing and customer service practices, and service calls that take weeks before anyone shows up.

WHEC-TV Rochester began covering problems with Frontier on Aug. 22, 2016 with an investigation into internet woes at a Geneseo insurance agency. (2:21)

One day later (Aug. 23, 2016) complaints from other Frontier customers poured into WHEC-TV’s newsroom because of outages and bad service. (2:54)

In September, 2016 WHEC-TV was back with another story from frustrated and angry customers who can’t get suitable service from Frontier Communications, but found a $200 early termination fee on their bills when they tried to cancel. Now the Attorney General is getting involved. (3:18)

In late December, WHEC reported it had asked the N.Y. Public Service Commission to start an investigation into Frontier Communications over its broadband service. (2:20)

In February, when N.Y. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman came to town to discuss the honesty of ISP speed claims, WHEC reporter Jennifer Lewke instead questioned him about the hundreds of complaints the station had received about Frontier Communications. (3:03)

About one week after the Attorney General visited Rochester, WHEC reported Frontier Communications’ “old and outdated” equipment was directly responsible for taking a local radio station off the air for hours at a time. (1:10)

Several days after a windstorm in the Rochester area took away power to nearly half the metropolitan area, WHEC reports residents are frustrated waiting for cable and phone service to be restored. An investigation into utility infrastructure is now underway. (3:17)