STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
Re: Petition for Declaratory Ruling to Clarify Provisions of Section 332(c)(7)(B) to Ensure 
Timely Siting Review and to Preempt Under Section 253 State and Local Ordinances that 
Classify All Wireless Siting Proposals as Requiring a Variance, WT Docket No. 08-165.
Wireless communication—mobile—has always been central to the FCC’s mission.  And 
mobile has never had greater potential to help address vital priorities—including generating 
economic growth, spurring job creation, and advancing national purposes like health care, 
education, energy independence, and public safety.  We must ensure that America leads the world 
in mobile.
Because mobile increasingly means broadband as well as voice, issues involving 
spectrum policy and wireless deployment will be important elements of our National Broadband 
Plan, due by February 17th, and we will hear more about that later today.  But even as we work on 
a National Broadband Plan, we can and should move forward with concrete actions to unleash the 
opportunity of mobile.  
To that end, in August the Commission launched inquiries into how best to promote 
innovation, investment, and competition in the wireless industry, as well as how to protect and 
empower consumers of wireless and other communications services.
In October, I outlined a Mobile Broadband Agenda that included as a key element 
removing obstacles to robust and ubiquitous mobile networks.
And with today’s Declaratory Ruling, the Commission moves forward on that agenda and 
takes an important step to cut through red tape and accelerate the deployment of next-generation 
wireless services.
After years on the distant horizon, 4G networks are ready to move from the drawing 
board to the marketplace.  One major provider has already launched 4G WiMAX service in select 
markets.  Competitors have announced plans to debut LTE networks in major markets around the 
country beginning next year.  
The real winners here will be American consumers and businesses, who will soon be able 
to experience mobile broadband speeds and capacities that rival what many fixed broadband 
customers receive at home today.  These new wireless networks will change how we 
communicate and how we engage in commerce.  And they hold the promise of improving our
quality of life.  To take one example offered by the American Telemedicine Association in 
encouraging us to take the step we take today, next generation wireless networks will allow 
doctors to start using mobile technology to monitor and treat chronic illnesses like heart disease 
and to improve doctor-patient communications.  
Accelerating the deployment of these new networks is obviously a critical goal for the 
nation.  But there is a lot of work that remains to be done before we can enjoy their benefits, and 
it won’t be easy. We at the FCC understand the many challenges mobile operators face in turning 
engineering plans into actual networks of steel towers, antennas, silicon chips, and sophisticated 
electronics.  We understand that sometimes the Commission needs to act, to establish clear rules 
of the road to reduce uncertainty and delay, spur investment, encourage innovation, and ensure 
that the benefits of advanced communications are available to all Americans.
Today’s ruling is one example of creating such rules.  One challenge mobile operators 
face is getting timely zoning approvals from state and local officials before building towers or 
deploying new equipment.  Recognizing this problem, Congress required these entities to act on 
such requests “within a reasonable period of time.”  Yet, despite Congress’s strong statement, the 
record before us indicates that delays have continued to persist in too many states and localities.  
For example, at the time the petition was filed, of the 3,300 pending zoning applications 
for wireless facilities, over 760 had been pending for more than a year and 180 had been pending 
for more than three years.  There is evidence that in certain jurisdictions the tower siting process 
is getting longer, even as the need for more towers and for timely decisions is growing.  
Today’s Declaratory Ruling will help end these unnecessary delays and speed the 
deployment of 4G networks, while also respecting the legitimate concerns of local authorities and 
preserving their control over local zoning and land use policies.  
Our decision achieves this balance by defining reasonable and achievable timeframes for 
state and local governments to act on zoning applications—90 days for collocations and 150 days 
for other siting applications. I want to be clear that the process we establish does not dictate any 
substantive outcome in any particular case, or otherwise limit state and local governments’ 
fundamental authority over local land use.  It simply requires that they must reach land use
decisions that involve wireless equipment in a timely fashion and be able to justify their 
conclusions to a federal district court if challenged, just as Congress specified.  
I should note that we reach today’s Ruling in response to a petition brought by CTIA, the 
wireless industry’s trade association, and I would like to acknowledge CTIA’s role in bringing 
this important issue to the Commission’s attention.  The decision we reach today does not grant 
the full relief that the industry’s petition seeks—for example, the petition argued for a shorter set 
of deadlines, and a requirement that zoning applications be “deemed granted” as soon as the 
deadlines expired.  I believe that the timeframes we adopt today, and the requirement that parties 
seek injunctive relief from a court, are more consistent with preserving State and local 
sovereignty and with the intent of Congress.  
Nevertheless, I believe the rules we adopt today are amply sufficient to the task and will 
have an important effect in speeding up wireless carriers’ ability to build new 4G networks—
which will in turn expand and improve the range of wireless choices available to American 
consumers.  Of course, we won’t rely just on a belief that our rules are having the effects we 
intend.  We will continue to monitor this area closely and ensure that the zoning process with 
respect to tower siting is operating in the way Congress intended.  
I would also like to thank the many able representatives of state and local governments 
who have worked with my office and the Wireless Bureau to ensure that today’s ruling respects 
the legitimate needs and prerogatives of local land use authorities.  
And of course special thanks to Ruth Milkman and her hardworking staff in the Wireless 
Bureau for their excellent work on this item, and for striving to strike a smart and effective 
balance between the deployment and expansion of wireless networks and preserving state and 
local zoning authority.