FCC Curbs Historic-Impact Reviews to Speed 5G Gear Installation
- Agency eases reviews before wireless equipment can be deployed
- Critics say oversight needed as antennaes proliferate
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Regulators helped clear the way for wireless companies to deploy hundreds of thousands of small antennas for use in advanced 5G service by easing historic and environmental reviews before equipment is deployed, and curbing American Indian tribes’ authority over the installations.
The Federal Communications Commission on a 3-to-2 Republican-led vote said installing the gear doesn’t trigger reviews under federal historic and environmental preservation rules.