Authorized companies are permitted to install and operate mobile telecom equipment on street light poles, traffic light poles, and certain privately-owned wooden utility poles. This equipment is used to provide wireless services, such as cell phone reception and wireless broadband.
Each pole installation consists of a box containing a provider’s radio equipment and an antenna atop the pole. Only one installation is permitted on a pole. The telecommunications equipment must be painted to match the color of the pole.
The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) oversees mobile telecommunications franchises, authorizing the use of the City’s streets to facilitate wireless communications throughout the city.
There are currently ten companies with franchises from DoITT to install and maintain mobile telecommunications equipment for their own private networks:
- Crown Castle Solutions, LLC
- Crown Castle NG East, LLC
- Crown Castle Fiber, LLC
- CSC Wireless, LLC
- ExteNet Systems, Inc.
- Mobilitie, LLC
- New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC
- New York SMSA Limited Partnership
- Transit Wireless, LLC
- ZenFi Networks, LLC
