Could Milwaukee Launch Its Own Cell Phone Service?

A crew installs 5G cellular equipment atop a utility pole in the Brewery District in April 2020. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Newly-elected Alderman Alex Brower, a Socialist, has drawn plenty of attention for his proposal to buy out We Energies and create a city-owned electric utility.

He’s now added a city-owned cell phone service to the list of ideas.

Brower was assigned to the Public Works Committee, a role which will have him reviewing dozens of leases and easements with private utilities.

During his first meeting, he scored $1,000 for the city from We Energies when Mayor Cavalier Johnson‘s administration was otherwise poised to grant an easement for free.

Faced with reviewing multiple cell service provider leases during his second meeting, he floated an entirely new idea: a city-owned cell phone and internet service provider.

It started by just asking how much the companies were paying.

“We should obviously be working to get as much as we can,” said Brower on April 30 when the committee was reviewing a lease extension with T-Mobile to place antennas on the roof of the Zeidler Municipal Building, 841 N. Broadway.

Brower asked how the city even calculates the price. No specific formula or explanation was offered.

“Most of these leases were entered into 25 years ago or so,” said assistant city attorney Jordan Schettle. The latest T-Mobile lease extension would run through 2030 with extensions through 2055. There is a 5% annual increase built in, with the payment now over $30,000 annually.

The company is one of several providers who lease space on city property, often building rooftops, to deploy antennas.

“If you’ve ever seen a water tower located anywhere in the entire country, you’ll see a bunch of these antennas,” said Department of Public Works (DPW) Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke.

Kruschke said DPW prefers the antennas placed atop buildings versus poles along the roadway.

“We’re trying not to price them out,” said Kruschke of how the city structures its pricing. “We would rather have them atop the Municipal Building than ripping up our entire roadway.” The city is required to accommodate the cellular companies, because they are utilities, within the public right of way.

But Brower’s knowledge of Wisconsin’s utility regulation framework spurred an idea.

“We could provide this service in the public arena,” said Brower. “You’re allowed to do this under Chapter 197 and if they’re Chapter 196 [regulated utilities] institutions, we should be considering things like this. I know that’s outside of the scope of what we’re talking about right now, but I just want to enter this in. Here, we have public property being used for basically commercial gain. And we should be considering all aspects when we’re doing this, the first aspect being we’re charging as much as we possibly can for these companies because they’re doing that to the consumers, and we can return it back to the public coffers that way. And, we should be looking and exploring all options for these services to be offered democratically and owned by the community.”

And while the logistics of offering a mobile phone service that stops at the city’s borders might not generate too much business, with 5G technology, the cell service providers are now offering wireless internet service for residential customers. State statute prevents municipalities from directly providing internet service to consumers, but it can develop and own the infrastructure and allow a private company to offer the service.

In 2021, Microsoft, PCs for People and Walnut Way Conservation Corp. partnered on a pilot project to bring low-cost, cellular internet to those who lived within a one-mile radius of a rooftop antenna.

The committee unanimously recommend approval for two leases for T-Mobile and another for Verizon.

Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs, the committee chair, asked DPW to report back on what similar cities are charging.

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