San Diego Getting 5G, City Planners Say Antenna Rollout Will Be Unobtrusive

Speaker 1: 00:00 Though federal regulators say local government should face legal action if they tried to restrict wireless companies from delivering five Jeep San Diego residents. Essentially say you've got to play by our rules as our science and technology reporters. Shalina chant Lani reports, San Diego is moving forward with five g and implementing new limitations on the high speed technology. Shalina thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks for having me here. So first, remind us why the city is required to upgrade to 5g. So San Diego has some pretty big smart city goals to begin with. So this transition to five g technology is already in the city's plan, but last year that transition got sped up because the FCC announced rollbacks on regulations around telecommunications providers and how they would be able to build their 5g infrastructure and effect that basically limited city's abilities to stall on accepting or denying permits for new poles and cells to be placed to support this infrastructure. Speaker 1: 01:03 Um, so that created some timelines that San Diego among other cities has to meet or face potential legal action from these providers. So what will five g technology change for us in our everyday lives? Yeah. So 5g promises faster internet speeds, higher connectivity, um, basically everywhere. It can impacts a major industries like the healthcare industry with things like virtual surgery by, um, getting rid of that, you know, delay between a surgeon wearing a virtual reality set and a robot actually performing a surgery. Um, and there are some potential benefits for low income communities too as well. A lot of low income students rely on their phones to be able to do their homework, so if they have higher speeds, and that's really great. Um, but you know, there are also some challenges for five g to work. It relies on basically these small cells being placed everywhere. Speaker 1: 01:56 So, you know, some paces might not be able to get that connectivity and that could actually result in a digital divide. Well, speaking of those small cells, what are the new limitations on five g technology here in San Diego? So the city on Tuesday almost unanimously voted to put in place regulations around these small cells, basically because they look kind of ugly. Uh, so regulations are aesthetic. Um, so they put in place specific design and processing requirements, uh, that, you know, are side by side the federal and state regulations around not limiting 5g infrastructure from being put in place. Essentially the city is putting the small cells in, but it's making some aesthetic, uh, limitation so that they aren't obtrusive. Okay. So there are some requirements as to how these things look basically. Uh, will the city face legal challenges to this? That's hard to say because the FCC isn't particularly for any type of delay when it comes to putting in these small cells. Speaker 1: 03:03 And an aesthetic requirement could be a type of delay, uh, or, uh, a burden for the wireless, uh, telecommunications providers. Um, but the city for the most part is complying with federal regulations. It's a meeting timeframe requirements for putting in place at standards. So it doesn't seem like the city is going gonna face any legal challenges to this. So what was it about the technology that residents had a problem with? So there are a couple of issues with the technology on the firsthand. It's kind of ugly. Uh, the, for five g to work, it relies on things called small cells, which are these shoe box size equipment that has to be put on Poles, um, for the intentive, uh, technology to be working. And so there are some cities in California like San Francisco that have already really pushed back on it in the California Supreme Court actually upheld that these small cells could pose aesthetic challenges for cities for things like tourism because cities that uh, you know, rely on people coming in and appreciating the, the, the splendor and the looks of the city, um, could face some issues with that. Speaker 1: 04:10 And San Diego, uh, residents are also having similar concerns. There are a lot of historic districts in San Diego that are very beautiful and residents are very concerned that this is going to take away from the, the look of these historic districts. And then there's also another issue which is kind of interesting. Um, a movement of folks who believe that there is more radiation that could potentially be admitted from the small cells. Cell phone towers give off, um, small amounts of radiation. Um, naturally because they, uh, are emitting radio waves. Uh, and so the, the belief is that the more these small cells are placed on every single block, the more you're going to be exposed to radiation. Um, there is not a lot of evidence to support that that is going to, to actually have a major impact on people. But it's a concern that has been floating around. Speaker 1: 05:06 So what happens to communities that have poor design or maintenance on these cell towers? Well, residents start to get concerned. Um, there are, you know, there's the arguments about people not wanting to move in to these areas. Some arguments about, um, housing developers not wanting to build an areas where there are a lot of these so-called ugly small cells being placed on Poles. Um, so there's some concern that this infrastructure is actually going to take away from some neighborhoods being able to develop or maintain that look that, you know, folks have liked for a really long time and one when we start to see five g technology here in San Diego. So San Diego has been beginning this transition to becoming a smart city. For a really long time. So actually year 18 t, a, t and t already announced a service in San Diego with 5g. So 5g is here. It's just going to be rolled out on a larger scale. All right. I've been speaking with KPBS science and technology reporters. Shalina Chaat, Lonnie Shalina. Thank you so much. Thank you.