New City Rules Prevent Emergency Power For Cellphones, Triggers Lawsuit Against City
Written by 991KBU on July 26, 2021
Want to know why your cellphone fails when the power goes out???
Cell phone antennas need electric power.
No electricity … no communications … just that simple.
The cellphone companies cannot just plop gas generators around Malibu very easily.
So one major wireless communications company has plans to install emergency generators and new antennas on top of an office building on Point Dume.
The plans have been blocked at Malibu City Hall.
And that has prompted a lawsuit by Verizon … a lawsuit that has city taxpayers on the side of anti 5-G activists who have been trying to ban wireless technology.
KBUU News has obtained details on the lawsuit … and the city’s response.
We are not a federal judge … but by all appearances …Verizon has the law on its side.
Congress … the FCC and the California Legislature have all ruled that … because 5G wireless is demonstrated as safe … local cities cannot restrict its deployment.
Current 5G technology uses existing cellphone frequencies … used for 20 years … with modern data transmission methods.
No new frequency bands have been approved by the FCC.
That has not stopped some activists … some in Malibu … most out of town … from peppering the Malibu city council with objections to 5G.
As a result … the city has adopted an ordinance supposedly aimed at the safety and aesthetics of the poles themselves.
And that is well and good.
The cellphone companies had made a mess of things in Malibu … with unsafe and overloaded power poles all over Malibu.
In the past 30 years … the cell phone companies have been ignored by the city as they installed ugly and obnoxious wires and boxes.
Some of them overloaded the poles.
But that was before the state cracked down on power pole safety.
And now … the state is requiring the cellphone companies to do a much better job in keeping their networks up … during power outages.
Remember …. wireless data means generators.
And that brings us to last year … when the Verizon wireless company applied to put in a generator and antenna on top of the office building at Portshead Road at Pacific Coast Highway.
The generator there would feed powered signals to several Verizon antennas already mounted in the Point Dume and Zuma Beach area.
It would keep wireless antenna service up during power outages.
Under federal law … the city has just 30 days to issue construction permits.
All the city can do is review the plans for safe electrical connections and aesthetics issues.
The Verizon installation would be less high than other cell antennas on the building … virtually invisible from PCH.
The city … under pressure from the anti 5G activists … has failed to review the plans.
Under federal law … that means the Verizon plans are automatically approved.
City lawyers have answered with a host of technicalities.
In the meantime … Verizon coverage in western Malibu is not protected against the inevitable blackouts in Malibu’s future.
When the power goes out .. and your phone is dead … this is why.
The City of Malibu is actively keeping a hidden emergency generator from being installed.
In the supposed name of safety … western Malibu is going to lose Verizon communications whenever the power goes out.
