By Charly SHELTON

For years, AT&T has been trying to get approval to build a new cell tower in the Crescenta Valley. Proposed sites for the tower have ranged from maintenance yards to residential streets to even Dunsmore Park. But each time the issue comes up, the proposal is knocked down in the face of strong rebuke from the public, citing an issue with the electromagnetic frequency power thrown off of the equipment in use. But now, in a newly proposed project, the cell tower has been reduced to a small cell canister, the EMF has been reduced to safe levels and the rebuke has been transformed into approval. The solution is a compromise of potency over size, spurred on by a new technological wave.

It was decided at a Land Use meeting on Monday night to endorse the installation of a small cell antenna sometime over the summer on an existing telephone pole at 4704 Briggs Ave., just north of where Briggs Avenue meets Fairmount Avenue.

“The small cells that we’re working on right now are going to be the backbone of 5G, which is the next standard that’s going to be coming out,” said Adrian Culici of the AT&T consultant Eukon Group, which has done the planning and will install the small cell. “[2019 will see the debut of most of the network infrastructure] then it will take a couple of years for iPhones and Galaxy Samsung phones to be 5G compatible. But hold onto your hats because it’s going to be pretty amazing! The latencies are going to be so much lower that they’ll be able to perform robotic surgery over 5G networks from across the world – that’s the kind of accuracy we’re talking about here. We’re going to need a lot more of these [small cells] and it needs to be able to keep up.”

With the 5G network coming, AT&T has identified a major coverage gap in the Briggs Avenue to Ocean View area, beginning around Cross Street at Briggs Avenue and heading northeast into the upper Ocean View Boulevard neighborhood. The solution? Rather than installing a macro cell, or 80-ft cell tower, a newer and more energy-efficient small cell can be installed to help fill the gap with stronger coverage while simultaneously taking some of the load off of the existing macro cells, freeing up that bandwidth for other users. This small cell will be installed along with three antennas to a crossbar on a telephone pole, and will give strong coverage to about a 500-foot-radius area. Culici contacted the neighbors who will be living close to the small cell and only one responded with any comments, ultimately in favor of installation.

The major difference with this installation as opposed to the previously slated macro cell, aside from the eyesore, is the energy output. The small cell is much more energy efficient and therefore throws out much less energy. Too much EMF has been linked to cancer, headaches and other health hazards. The FCC regulates the intensity EMF output and determined a safe level for unlimited exposure to be 1.00 mW/cm2.

After hiring Hammet & Edison Inc., an outside testing firm, to measure and evaluate the safety of the proposed small cell equipment at ground level, it was found to output 0.0056 mW/cm2, or just 0.56% of the safe acceptable levels. At a second story height, the level is 0.88% of the safe acceptable levels. That is less than 1% in either case.

“It’s important to note the antennas are directional and the power fall off from the face of the antenna is parabolic. It’s algorithmic, not geometric. In other words, if you plotted power on a vertical axis and distance on a horizontal axis, you would see a [parabolic] curve and, about two feet off the face, you’d see a marked dip in the power output and emissions. So basically anywhere beyond two feet is so minute that it’s under 1% of the maximum allowable limits,” Culici said.

The proposal was met with unanimous support from the Land Use Committee members at the meeting. Each member voiced their opinions, with the exception of Mike Classsens, who serves on CV Town Council and will be voting on approval or denial at the May 17 CVTC meeting.

“The reason why I am voting for it is because I understand the need for this device in this area. I have friends who live up here that I can never talk to because I can’t get them on the cellphone and that’s pretty prevalent in this particular area,” said Frank Beyt. “The second reason is everyone is concerned about output of this device, ‘the world’s going to end because of this device,’ and yet they hold their cellphones to their heads, which is producing the same amount of radio frequency as that cell device. So therefore it’s a non-issue and that’s why I support it. When 5G comes, and it will be here, I know these people will go crazy if they don’t have the ability to do 5G because it’s going to be essential to exist, basically, in today’s world. I firmly support this installation; it’s just a shame you can’t add everybody else to it, all your competitors.”

The Land Use Committee will send a letter in recommendation of approval to the CVTC, which will discuss and compose another letter either recommending support or denial, to be sent to the LA County Board of Supervisors.

  Charly Shelton