Could Milwaukee Launch Its Own Cell Phone Service?
Newly-elected alderman has no shortage of ideas.
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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This Brower guy and his crackpot ideas are getting annoying.
He should focus on issues that actually matter to Milwaukee residents.
I wish there were more politicians like Alex who were willing to think outside the box in efforts to serve their constituents rather than the same old politicians going along to get along and serving the interests of power.
This Brower guy and his excellent ideas are really getting interesting. I’m glad I voted for him!
I hope he continues to focus on issues that can have positive impact on us Milwaukee residents.
I’m with Keith Prochnow. There’s a new wind blowing in City Hall. Frank Zeidler would tip his hat to Alderman Brower.
Keep it up, Alex. You’ve got fans.
Alex Brower brings a fresh and new perspective. He is doing exactly what I elected him to do!
So, we raise the pricing for having the cell towers on the buildings. The company then raises the prices on consumers. The idea that the consumers get that money back from the city is a bit half baked. And then the idea that the city should get into the business of running a cellular provider? I’d like to see some hard numbers, not just a pie thrown into the sky… And this is the second pie, after the “building a replacement for WE Energies” pie.
The other cities who have looked into building a city-owned utility have all come away with the idea that it is too expensive. At a time when the city and county are strapped for cash, maybe focus on providing the services that are already mandated, and solving the problems we already have rather than proposing new ventures, might be a bit more in the service of the people?
I’m a passionate Democrat, with a lot of sympathy for the idea of better services and less corporate profits on the backs of consumers, but how about getting rid of out of state equity firms holding rental properties and letting them decay while jacking up rents year after year? How about focusing on improving the police commission, or better recycling services, or our parks? Things that the alderman actually have some say in.
The city can’t even keep the street lights on in my neighborhood. I can’t imagine how often the city-run cell phone network would have outages lol
I already have great 5G service that I only pay $16/month for and it works outside of the city too!
Finally a breath of fresh air in this city, look forward to more plans and proposals coming up here.
Municipal fiber Internet next please!!!
Imagine if ALL of City of Milwaukee could be wired up with fast and affordable fiber internet? No more paying 2-8x higher with Spectrum/AT&T/TDS/etc.