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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 36 / Thursday, February 25, 2021 / Rules and Regulations used for transmitting or receiving fixed wireless signals. The Commission found that unreasonable restrictions on the placement of customer premises antennas disadvantage providers of fixed wireless services as compared to their wireline competitors and unreasonably discriminated among providers of functionally equivalent services. The Commission defined fixed wireless signals as any commercial non-broadcast communications signals transmitted via wireless technology to and/or from a fixed customer location.
The Commission stated that the extension of the OTARD rule would apply only to antennas at the customer end of the wireless transmission, i.e., to antennas placed at the customer location for the purpose of providing fixed wireless service . . . to one or more customers at that location. The Commission reasoned that these antennas were customer premises equipment and that section 332 of the Communications Act did not act as a bar to OTARD protection because the antennas were not used to provide personal wireless services. The Commission concluded that it did not intend the rules to cover hub or relay antennas used to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from multiple customer locations.
4. In its 2004 Competitive Networks Reconsideration Order, the Commission revised its previous finding and determined that the OTARD rule applies to hub and relay antennas that are installed in order to serve the customer on such premises, but that it does not apply to hub and relay antennas designed primarily for use as hubs for distribution of service to multiple customer locations. The Commissions reconsideration responded to a petition from a licensee that deployed its networks using a point-to-point-topoint architecture in which each customer device also served as a relay device. The Commission, noting that it had not considered those network configurations and technologies in which customer-end equipment performs both functions and offered advanced services, found that, for the purposes of the OTARD protections, the equipment deployed in such networks shares the same physical characteristics of other customer-end equipment, distinguished only by the additional functionality of routing service to additional users. The Commission did not believe that the Commissions rules should serve to disadvantage more efficient technologies. The Commission consequently found that the OTARD

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protections would apply to installations serving the premises customer that also relays signals to other customers, such as is typical in mesh networks, but would not apply to installations that are designed primarily for use as hubs for distribution of service.
5. In 2018, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association WISPA
asked the Commission to update the OTARD rule to apply to all fixed wireless transmitters and receivers, regardless of whether the equipment is used for reception, transmission, or both, so long as the equipment meets the existing size restrictions for customer-end equipment. WISPA
argues that extending the OTARD rule to all fixed wireless equipment would be consistent with the original intent of OTARD, will accelerate the deployment of competitive broadband services in markets across the country, and will empower consumers to help bring competitive wireless broadband to their communities by hosting hub sites.
6. WISPA asserts that updating the OTARD rule is necessary to accommodate changes in fixed wireless architecture. While fixed wireless systems historically relied on relatively large coverage areas with fewer hub sites per customer, over time, as both the cost of technology fell and subscriber data increased, fixed wireless providers began to reduce the size of the area covered per base station. Because of these changes in technology and network design, WISPA contends, fixed wireless providers have much less choice in where they can locate hub sites. WISPA further contends that, in the absence of Commission action to modernize the OTARD rules, fixed wireless operators will continue to face significant hurdles to siting, perpetuating barriers to new investment and employment. WISPA further argues that the Commission originally declined to extend OTARD protections to hub sites based on its opinion at the time that fixed wireless hubs were covered under section 332 of the Communications Actan opinion that WISPA says does not apply to modern networks because hub sites used for fixed wireless broadband do not necessarily include an offering of telecommunications service.
7. In response to WISPAs letter, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Notice seeking comment on extending the OTARD
protections to fixed wireless facilities that operate primarily as hub and relay antennas, but do not qualify as personal wireless service facilities under section 332c7 because they are not used to provide telecommunications services. In
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this Report and Order, the Commission updates the OTARD rule to reflect the current technological landscape by eliminating the restriction that excludes some hub and relay antennas from the scope of the OTARD protections if they are used primarily for the distribution of service to multiple customer locations.
In the 2004 Competitive Networks Reconsideration Order, the Commission determined that customer-end equipment possessing the additional functionality of routing service to additional users such as a node in a mesh network would not lose OTARD
protection, so long as the equipment was installed in order to serve the customer on its premises, but that it would not apply to installations that are designed primarily for use as hubs for distribution of service.
8. The revised OTARD rule applies to all hub and relay antennas that are used for the distribution of fixed wireless services to multiple customer locations, regardless of whether they are primarily used for this purpose, as long as: 1 The antenna serves a customer on whose premises it is located, and 2 the service provided over the antenna is broadband-only.2
The Commissions order here does not modify any other aspects of the current OTARD rule. Thus, the rules requirements that antennas must be less than one meter in diameter or diagonal measurement, that they apply to property where the user has a direct or indirect ownership or leasehold interest, and that restrictions necessary for safety and historic preservation are excepted, remain in place.
9. Policy Considerations. The Commission finds that this limited expansion of the OTARD rule to fixed wireless hub and relay antennas will align the Commissions rules with the current fixed wireless technological landscape and accelerate the deployment of competitive fixed wireless services to consumers. The record supports the conclusion that the fixed wireless technologies have shifted from using larger antennas that transmit over greater distancesthat were in use at the time the Commission adopted the hub and relay antenna restrictionto the use of smaller antennas that are located much closer to each other. As numerous commenters emphasize, todays fixed wireless networks rely on smaller antennas located in close proximity to each other. Even in rural areas, these networks are deployed in 2 Accordingly, the Commission amends 47 CFR
1.4000 by revision subparagraph a1 and adding subparagraph a5 to reflect its clarification to the definition of hub and relay antennas.

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