A new
report by Accenture Strategy found that regulations imposed by the National
Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NHPA/NEPA)
cost 5G wireless providers nearly $36 million in 2017 and consumed 29% of all
related deployment costs, on average. With small cell deployment expected to
grow significantly in coming years, the report finds that wireless providers
will incur $2.43 billion in NHPA/NEPA regulatory costs from 2018 to 2026.
Therefore, if the costs of NHPA/NEPA regulations were cut by two-thirds, 5G
wireless providers throughout the U.S. would have an additional $1.56 billion
to invest in small cell deployment.
FCC Commissioner
Brendan Carr recently announced a new
proposal that would cut NHPA/NEPA regulatory costs by 80%. If adopted, 5G
wireless providers would have even more cost savings to allocate towards
additional small cell deployment.
Posts
