STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
Re: Wireless Properties, LLC Application for Review.
Deploying the towers, antennas, and other infrastructure necessary to meet consumers’ growing 
demand for mobile broadband is no easy task.  And it’s often made more difficult by federal, state, and 
local regulations that unnecessarily slow the process down.
1
  So when a state determines that a proposed 
tower will not adversely affect any historic property identified by the applicant, the law treats that as the 
state’s final answer.  
            
Accordingly, today’s Order correctly finds that Tennessee lacked authority under the Nationwide 
Programmatic Agreement (NPA), which governs the review process, to reopen a proceeding after 
concluding that a proposed tower would have no adverse impact.  This is the right answer under the law 
and one that will help promote certainty and transparency while speeding the deployment of wireless 
infrastructure. 
At the same time, the NPA does provide the Federal Communications Commission with limited 
authority to reopen a proceeding.  And I believe the FCC lawfully exercises that authority in this case 
because the applicant omitted material information from its application.  In particular, it did not identify a 
National Park that fell within the proposed tower’s Area of Potential Affect.  So I agree that the FCC 
should exercise its own authority under the NPA and reopen the proceeding for the limited purpose of 
allowing the state to examine the proposed tower’s potential impact on that property.
I would like to thank my colleagues for accommodating my suggestions on this item, and the 
hard-working staff of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, including Mania Baghdadi, Stephen 
Delsordo, Erica Rosenberg, Jeff Steinberg, and Johanna Thomas for their efforts.
                                                     
1
See, e.g., Acceleration of Broadband Deployment by Improving Wireless Facilities Siting Policies, WT Docket No. 
13-238, 29 FCC Rcd 12865, 13016-17 (2014) (Statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai), available at
http://go.usa.gov/3GynH; see also Remarks of Commissioner Ajit Pai at PCIA’s 2014 Wireless Infrastructure Show 
(2014), available at http://go.usa.gov/3GynV; Remarks of Commissioner Ajit Pai at CTIA’s MobileCon (2012),
available at http://go.usa.gov/wMG9.