Latest 9th Circuit Decision on Wireless Facilities Leaves Key Questions Unanswered

8/4/2009
Practitioner comment on T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. City of Anacortes (No 08-35493, slip op. (9th Cir. July 20, 2009), available at 2009 WL 2138980).

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“TCA”) was enacted with goals that were at once complementary and contradictory–to increase competition and facilitate rapid deployment of new technology, on the one hand, while preserving the autonomy of states and municipalities, on the other. Since enactment, telecommunications service providers, and local and state governments, have resorted to the Act to suit their respective objectives. Providers, driven by technologies and market demand for new services, have continuously sought to install, upgrade and maintain telecommunications facilities upon both private and public property. State and local political leaders, motivated by changing values and community aesthetic objectives, have resisted and sought to regulate and control the installations. The TCA has proven to be an inconsistent guide, at best, to resolving this tension. More than a decade after enactment of the TCA, major questions about local right to control or deny telecommunications installations remain unanswered. Recent decisions in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clarify the law as to wireless facilities but reveal remaining tension between local prerogatives and provider needs.

Lara-Beye Molina, an associate in the San Francisco office of the firm, assisted in the preparation of this Advisory.

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