City Telecoms Association
An Emerging Set of Principles
Preamble:
Digital connectivity is essential to advancing economic, social, sustainable and cultural development and to delivering liveable communities for all.
Historically, a structural lack of collaboration and coordination between city administrations and the private sector has led to poor outcomes for all parties in terms of the cost and time needed to deploy equipment, visual pollution and limited service availability in underserved communities.
Investment in existing 4G and 5G networks, and fibre infrastructure and evolutions beyond 5G is necessary to meet both the volume of digital traffic and performance. And city administrations play a critical role in supporting the roll-out of these networks and ensuring that they are future proofed.
In the absence of dialogue and collaboration between city administrations, the private sector and other stakeholders, it will not be possible to tackle issues such as:
- access to public assets;
- fair competition;
- the need to reduce the digital divide;
- the rollout of viable business models;
- the deployment of aesthetic infrastructure and reducing duplication;
- data sharing;
- and network security.
The City Telecoms Association will convene regular meetings to foster ongoing dialogue among city administrations, telecom operators, representative bodies, and industry stakeholders. These discussions will share best practices and address challenges hindering collaborative infrastructure deployment.
The following set of draft principles form the basis of the City Telecoms Association. With further dialogue and co-operation, these principles will grow and evolve into a working charter that will define the future of city and industry collaboration.
Economic Benefits. Members understand the economic imperative that comes with pervasive connectivity and the critical role that telecoms plays in increasing productivity and allowing value-add to all aspects of the innovation ecosystem.
Connectivity for All. All members of a community should have access to high speed connectivity wired and/or wireless with a choice of providers available that is affordable.
Access to city assets. Operators and Infra providers require a suite of consistent processes and procedures for how they can access city assets to support deployments to include the following: ducting, buildings, rooftops, parks, public realm, streetlights, poles, traffic poles, street furniture. The details may vary across territorial boundaries but the principles should remain the same when possible:
- Publishing Asset Registers. Cities commit to sharing an open asset register platform of assets that may support the deployment telecoms
- Standard Guidelines for access to Assets. Certainty on the processes, procedures and timelines on the decision making process when dealing with asset owners.
- Single Point of Information for access to Assets. Cities commit to provide a single point of information for operators, streamlining the processes, procedures, and timelines.
Cost Recovery Principle. Cities commit to share access to assets on the basis of improved connectivity outcomes and do so on a cost recovery basis with industry.
Aesthetics. Members are committed to reducing or limiting clutter in the public realm. Telecoms equipment such as small cells should blend in with the urban environment while associated equipment should minimize any impact on accessibility in the public realm.
Commitment to sustainability Cities have ambitious targets for reducing emissions therefore telecoms networks should strive to be as efficient as possible, reduce duplication and minimise the amount of energy required to operate.
Collaboration on network deployments and Future Proofing. There should be better collaboration around future network planning and alignment with road openings and ongoing infrastructure work in cities as part of a wider one-dig policy approach.
Digital inclusion: Members are committed to deploying network infrastructure with the goal to reduce the digital divide, remove urban not spots, and pursue more equitable societies. Members are committed to specific initiatives targeting underserved communities, such as subsidy programs or innovative deployment models; and members aim to quantify goals to bridge the digital gap, ensuring affordable high-speed connectivity for all residents.
Openness and Transparency Members are committed to sharing information and data in order to better inform cities of coverage and capacity data and future networking plans where appropriate.
Communications around telecoms. Citizens and Communities need to be better informed around telecom deployments in the community. There should be ease of access to independent information and monitoring data in relation to emissions to alleviate such concerns.
Environmental Sustainability Benchmarks: Members commit to establish measurable sustainability targets, aiming to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact within the telecom infrastructure. Members will implement where appropriate renewable energy sources and track progress towards set benchmarks.
Postamble
The above set of principles illustrates the intentions, goals and determination of the City Telecoms Association. They are ambitious yet realistic, and will act as a benchmark for what is achievable with improved public-private collaboration. Importantly, these principles are dynamic, and input from members and prospective members is encouraged to ensure that they accurately reflect the needs of cities and industry.