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Small Cell Towers Spouting Up Around Lexington

The city of Lexington is expanding 5-G network capability. Members of the Council’s Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee got an update last week.

The city’s Chief Information Officer Aldona Valicenti presented the small cell wireless update. Valicenti said Lexington has well over 200 small cell towers and that number is growing. She noted the idea is to establish a network with greater bandwidth and higher speeds.

“It acts like a relay, so that the signal doesn’t get dropped. It gets relayed from one to another and consequently that probably is one of the advantages that you would have as a consumer,” said Valicenti.

Valicenti said the city’s role as the five-g small cell tower network expands is in the area of aesthetics and safety. The CIO added the smaller compact units which provide cell phone connectivity need to be positioned as not to impede traffic. Council Member Josh McCurn asked about the installation process. “That’s one of the concerns that we’re hearing is people are seeing these pop up in their front yard and they have a pole sitting next to a 5-G tower and they don’t know if it’s going to be decommissioned. They don’t know the time frame. They don’t know what it is.” Explained McCurn.

Valicenti said the process is for the old pole to come down once the new small cell tower is turned on. She said there are placed in the public right of way with attention given to aesthetics and safe traffic flow.

Copyright 2021 WEKU. To see more, visit WEKU.

Stu has been reporting for WEKU for more than 35 years. His primary beat is Lexington/Fayette government.
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