Sparsely populated areas of Nebraska with no cell phone service could be helped by a policy from the Public Service Commission that makes millions of dollars available for new cell towers.
For years, a phone surcharge paid by Nebraskans that gathers millions of dollars annually has gone mainly to landline phone companies to help pay for rural service. Last year, 48 phone companies received a total of nearly $71 million from the state Universal Service Fund.
But cell phone users contribute more than half of the money to the fund. Now, under the new policy, $5 million of the fund will be available each year to build cell towers in parts of the state with no coverage.
“We’re recognizing that many of the contributions to the Universal Service Fund are cell users and we’re trying to spend some of the funds on cellular technology,” said Public Service Commissioner Frank Landis. “We ought to be spending some of this money to support the technology.”
He said the policy is designed to help build towers in remote areas that private companies avoid because too few people in the area are paying for service.
Asked why more of the multimillion dollar fund isn’t being set aside to help build cellular towers, Landis said the landline system that benefits from much of the fund is still a key cog in cellular technology. Cell calls are often routed through landlines.
Companies have been slow to apply for a piece of the $5 million since the commission approved the policy earlier this year, but Landis takes it more as sign that companies are learning about the policy than a lack of interest. No companies initially applied for the money this year, so half the $5 million allotted went back into the general United Service Fund.
But in late June, Viaero Wireless applied for the remaining $2.5 million and has shown interest in a piece of the $5 million that will be made available next year.
The company wants $3 million to build eight towers near the eastern portion of the Niobrara River and towns including Verdel and Lynch, according to the application it filed with the PSC.
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln economist who studied what parts of the state are not served by wireless companies — and are not likely to be because of sparse populations — said he couldn’t quantify how much of the state lacks cell coverage. But David Rosenbaum said there are “significant chunks of the state where we didn’t see cell coverage.”
They were in the expected places: far from large and mid-sized towns and major roads.
His analysis, done at the request of the PSC, showed that companies put towers in areas where each can serve 200 to 500 residents and travelers.
“We know the areas where it makes sense to support tower construction, but the question is where exactly do we put them?” Rosenbaum said.
Landis supports first putting towers along highways in regions where the number of residents and travelers is below the 200- to 500-person threshold identified by Rosenbaum, then determining if it makes sense to expand into the furthest rural reaches of the state.
Decisions likely be negotiated between the PSC and companies that apply for the money. Companies that get the state funds to build remote towers will have to allow others to use them. That includes other wireless phone companies, companies that provide wireless Internet service and such public entities as the Nebraska State Patrol.