Do you remember the lime green, wall-mounted rotary phones with the 20-foot cord? Those days are long since gone as now, more than 90 percent of adults in the country own a cell phone.

Add in children and teens who have smart phones — as well as tablets — and that’s hundreds millions of mobile devices being used every day. And with an increase in demand comes an increased need in coverage.

Susan Rabold and Elizabeth Herington-Smith gave a two-hour presentation to the Sedona City Council on July 13. The two are from CityScape Consultants, a nationwide firm that guides government clients primarily with wireless master planning.

A city report states that a comprehensive approach to wireless development in Sedona will help align the needs of wireless broadband service providers with government and community objectives. This should allow for infrastructure planning and development that will accommodate multiple providers, improve public safety and help attract and retain residents and businesses.

“The evolution of wireless is going to continue to grow — it’s not going to stop,” Rabold said. “Over the next 10 to 15 years, you’re going to see faster and faster broadband speeds on your handset. You’re also going to see more ‘smart’ businesses and tools.”

CityScape expects by the year 2020:

• Airtime minutes to increase as wired lines [land line] are replaced.
• Airtime minutes increase as more services are added to the handsets.
• Emerging technologies of wireless internet and mobile commerce to compete and coexist with traditional wireless telecommunications services.
• More wireless infrastructure necessary to meet demands placed on existing networks.

Rabold said it’s important that Sedona be proactive in its development of long-range goals and objectives for wireless telecommunications.

“CityScape will develop this master plan detailing all current infrastructure while developing a realistic future evolution blueprint that will allow communities to direct the growth while maintaining the aesthetics of the community,” she said.

The master plan will identify existing infrastructure and project where new infrastructure will be necessary to meet wireless connectivity goals and objectives by the community and industry, she said. It will simplify the network deployment process enabling technology of wireless services to citizens in the community in an expedient and efficient manner. It will ensure compliance with state and federal legislation required of local government. And, it will also create a new method for community revenues as those with cell towers on their property are often paid anywhere from $500 to $2,400 a month by the cell phone providers.

Federal law mandates that cities, counties and states abide by the following:

• Must allow for the carriers to deploy their systems.
• Must act expeditiously in these requests.
• Must treat providers equally by providing equal access to “functionally equivalent services.”
• Local governments’ land development standards can’t supersede nor undermine areas of federal jurisdiction.
• Enable the federal government to use federal property, rights-of-way and easements for leasing for new telecommunications infrastructure.
• Requirements for tower lighting and markings are exclusively regulated by the FAA/FCC.

Vice Mayor John Martinez asked if he was correct in that the city can’t prevent this from happening nor can it state that it does not want cell towers within the city limits.
Rabold said he was correct and added, “You can say you don’t want cell towers but you have to have another way for them to attach them such as rooftops, water tanks or other structures. If you don’t have enough existing structures throughout your geographic area, you’ll have to allow some type of new structure to go in.”

Even though the city’s hands are somewhat tied due to federal regulations, Rabold said that the city will have a say in regard to public health, safety and welfare. In addition, it can give input when it comes to development standards such as landscaping, height, infrastructure type, siting strategies, setbacks, location, fencing and signage.

As technology advances and demand continues to increase, Sedona, like most communities, will see the number of cell towers or smaller transmitters increase substantially from just a few to dozens throughout the community.

“When we tell communities the number of sites that we propose, they’re blown away sometimes,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I had no idea it would be this many sites.’ But you need to know that so that you can plan for it.”

CityScape representatives will appear before council no sooner than two months from now as they will continue mapping the coverage area within Sedona and give their recommendations on future tower placement.