The governor of California blocked a bill approved by the state’s legislature which would have streamlined small cell siting regulations.

Under the plan, which was backed by all four major US wireless carriers and industry association CTIA, a uniform permit process would have been established and fixed fees set for small cell deployments in the nation’s most populous state.

Though the bill was passed by both the state assembly and senate in September, Governor Edmund Brown this week declined to sign it into law. Brown indicated in a letter to the state senate he recognised the “real value” in accelerating deployments of new technology, but insisted the preservation of local municipal interests “requires a more balanced solution” than seen in the bill.

Wireless stakeholders – including Verizon and T-Mobile US – have been pushing for small cell siting reforms at the state level while they await potential action from the Federal Communications Commission on a nationwide scale. Bills similar to the one blocked in California were signed into law by the governors of Virginia, Minnesota, Texas, Rhode Island, Arizona, Iowa, Delaware, and Colorado among others. Ohio’s iteration of the bill, which was approved in December 2016, was stayed by the courts.

Nationwide battle
The California veto is a blow to US operators, which have been working to densify their networks ahead of 5G. At an investor conference in June, for example, T-Mobile executives said the operator aims to add another 25,000 small cells to its current network of 15,000 small cells and DAS nodes in the coming years. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray in July touted the rollout of 1,000 small cells in Los Angeles, but all US operators report their expansions have been hindered by egregiously long permit reviews and exorbitant siting fees.

In May, Sprint told the FCC it was forced to pay $7,535 per site in review fees when it added small cells to NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas ahead of the 2017 Super Bowl.

“Without relief, many small cell deployments will face long delays and excessive costs, hindering both wireless broadband deployment and US leadership in the race to 5G,” Verizon wrote in a FCC filing in March.

At Mobile World Congress Americas in September, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure reiterated the warning, noting the US stands to lose its leadership position on 5G if government officials can’t “get their act together” on siting reform.