Telebeam Telecommunications executives urged the FCC Thursday not...

Telebeam Telecommunications executives urged the FCC Thursday not to adopt any rules that would allow New York City to avoid applying wireless siting rules to wireless facilities located in city payphone structures on public sidewalks, Telebeam said in an ex parte filing posted Monday. Telebeam said the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) had told the commission in a meeting that it was seeking proposals for a franchise that would replace expiring payphone franchises with ones for new structures that would include Wi-Fi and potentially wireless services. DoITT is arguing that its regulation of communications providers is exempt from Communications Act rules because it is operating in its role as a landowner rather than as a regulator -- something it has previously argued, Telebeam said. The telco, which has applied for the franchise, said it has operated payphones in New York since 1985, and owns and operates about 23 percent of the city’s payphone locations on public sidewalks. New York plans to issue one franchise under its new plan, which means Telebeam “faces the loss of its investment and its business,” the telco said. The city claims the franchise is “non-exclusive” because it could issue additional franchises in the future, but it would be a “de facto monopoly,” Telebeam said (http://bit.ly/1kjF7NO).