As demand grows, the cell signal boosting ‘cantenna’ comes to Corridor light poles

CEDAR RAPIDS - Nic Roberts, the city's information technology director, says he, too, is part of the problem.

At any given time, he said this week, he has four cellular devices on him or next to him: two smartphones and two computer tablets, one of each for city use and one of each for private use.

His and most everyone else's unquenchable appetite for cellular service comes at a time when customers are quick to oppose plans for giant cell towers that might loom over neighborhood trees or spoil views.

But a change is coming that could make the fights less frequent.

Cedar Rapids and Marion are in negotiations with Verizon to permit the provider to erect small, can-shaped antennas - called 'cantennas” - on light poles.

Ryan Miller, Marion's public services director, said Verizon has agreed for starters to place cantennas on nine city light poles downtown.

'It will only grow from this point,” Miller said. Marion's agreement with Verizon calls for the city to receive $300 a month in revenue per pole.

In Cedar Rapids, the City Council this week approved a resolution allowing the city to lease excess fiber service in the 131-mile Joint Communications Network system that the city, along with the county and Cedar Rapids schools, constructed in 2012 and 2013 at a cost of about $12 million. The system connects the entities' public facilities, public safety services and the city traffic lights.

The council vote will allow half the excess capacity to be leased to Unite Private Networks, or UPN, a firm working with Verizon, Roberts said. UPN will pay the city-county-school network $1.25 million over 20 years for the lease.

In turn, he said UPN will use the leased fiber to support the installation of cantennas on light poles in the city.

For now, Roberts said the city has decided not make its own poles available for the program. The city has been in negotiations with Alliant Energy to transfer city streetlights to the utility, which owns most of the poles in Cedar Rapids.

However, he said the city for now supports installation of cantennas on private light poles near where demand can be high - at the malls, Kirkwood Community College and Rockwell Collins, for instance.

Alliant Energy spokesman Justin Foss said federal regulations require Alliant to make space available on its light poles for other utilities that want space if the poles can handle the equipment. Some Alliant poles may need to be replaced with taller ones or have guy-wires installed to accommodate cantennas, he said.

Karen Smith, spokeswoman for Verizon's Great Plains region, said Verizon is turning to 'small cell” installations in cities like Cedar Rapids, Marion and the Des Moines metro area to add capacity to its 4GLTE network so it can better serve city customers. She said Verizon has installed small antennas in places like Chicago, San Francisco and St. Paul, Minn. The company, she added, still needs cell towers. But she said it would need more of them but for smaller antennas.

In Coralville, assistant city manager Ellen Habel said the city has approved five cantenna units for installation on utility poles owned by Linn County REC.

In Iowa City, Simon Andrew, assistant to the city manager, said Iowa City has approved a fiber license agreement with UPN, but the Public Works Department has not had any discussions about cantennas, he said.

In June 2014, a dispute surfaced in northwest Cedar Rapids when a cellular provider proposed a 125-foot-tall tower on church property in a residential neighborhood. City officials put the project on hold, then came up with a new ordinance that makes it more difficult to build towers near neighborhoods.

Roberts said each cantenna weighs about 70 pounds. One engineering estimate, he said, is that a section of a city may need 23 cantennas to equal the service a giant cell tower would provide.

'I think you'll probably see these on every street corner in the next five to seven years,” he said.