In October, I wrote about King County officials’ proposal to dramatically increase the Right of Way (ROW) use fee they charged to wireless phone providers. In their proposed 2015-16 county budget, some County officials wanted to increase the fee from the current $2,000 to $5,000 to a staggering $10,000, with a 4% automatic increase every year. The fee is ultimately paid by cell phone customers in the form of higher service prices.
A ROW agreement allows a cell phone company to install wireless facilities (cell towers and antenna) on sites located within the public right of way, such as attachments on utility poles located near the road or sidewalk.
I noted that while many local governments do not charge ROW fees at all, King County’s ROW fee is already higher than most municipalities that do, and the proposed increase would push King County to the top of that list. I said the proposed increase would increase the costs of expanding wireless coverage and result in higher prices for consumers. The association representing wireless providers, CTIA-The Wireless Association, warned the higher fee would “significantly reduce the deployment in King County of new [wireless] technologies,” and would ultimately “reduce broadband coverage for King County citizens and businesses.”
Such reductions would come at a time when the demand for data services has increased by more than 50,000% in six years, and is expected to increase another 650% by 2018.
Apparently not every member of the King County Council thinks increasing the cost of building wireless infrastructure is a good way to expand wireless coverage. After reading our blog on the issue, County Council member Jane Hague thanked WPC for shedding light on the proposed ROW use fee increase. She said the idea needed more thoughtful consideration. The result was a budget proviso that cancelled the proposed fee increase in favor of a study to determine the impacts of making wireless service more expensive for consumers. Washington cell phone users already pay the highest wireless taxes in the nation.
The King County Council unanimously adopted the revised budget that included a study versus the fee increase. Hopefully the report, which will be completed in 2015, will include data from studies that show increased investments in wireless infrastructure have a ripple effect in many sectors, helping all consumers and generating overall economic growth. The cancelled fee increase is especially good news for low-income families, who are often the last to see wireless upgrades in their neighborhoods.
Encouraging wireless providers to expand wireless coverage by keeping fees on wireless services as low as possible is a win-win-win, for the county, the economy and for consumers.
