Miami’s Streets Are Awash With 5G Debris Ahead of the Super Bowl

(Bloomberg) -- Wireless carriers are facing a backlash for their rush to install 5G towers in South Florida ahead of the Super Bowl.

Locals say the new towers, many still unfinished, spring unpredictably from torn-up sidewalks, creating obstacles for bicycles and wheelchairs. They jut out in front of expensive condos and, in at least one case, beside street art.

The blight extends to the pavement, as well as above it: In their haste, installers have been accused of leaving downtown Miami streets marked with red, orange and white spray-painted patterns that workers use to trace underground utility lines.

“It’s very ugly,” said Amal Kabbani, 50, a local resident and the president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, whose full-time job is in marketing. “There is no regard for where they are being placed.”

Faster Speeds

5G, or fifth-generation wireless technology, could end up being 100 times faster than previous iterations -- and companies are eager to show it off at America’s biggest sporting event. Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. all produced Super Bowl-themed advertising around the technology, even though few people actually have phones that can use it.

Florida lawmakers were eager to bring 5G to the Sunshine State. Last year, the Florida legislature eliminated a rule that required mobile operators to try to share infrastructure and mandated that localities approve permit requests within 30 days, according to Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins. She drew attention to the issue last August when she tweeted a picture of a 5G pole that had been erected in the middle of a sidewalk.

“If you get your pole in the ground first, no one else can put a pole in the ground there,” she said in a phone interview, adding that the legislature had spurred a “land rush” for pole space among telecom operators. “There was no method to the madness.”

‘Built Right’

Now, the gray and black towers add a new, mechanical aesthetic to the palm-tree-lined streets of Miami’s downtown district. Many of them don’t appear to be finished, with exposed wiring and warnings about the risk of electrical shocks.

Some have been placed directly in front of new residential buildings, with the antennas at the top rising into close-up views from the balconies of lower-level units. Outside of the One Miami Condominium, a tower was placed just feet away from a dramatic sculpture on a manicured lawn.

“They don’t care,” Higgins said when asked about the pole placements. “They’re putting a piece of graph paper out there, and they are gridding us as if nothing exists, like we are some field of corn in Iowa.”

5G advertising, meanwhile, has become just as ubiquitous as the towers themselves. Hovering above Biscayne Boulevard, a Super Bowl-themed Verizon ad covering a 17-story building reads, “5G built right.”

Verizon, for its part, is reviewing some issues that have been reported locally, according to spokeswoman Lauren Schulz. She said overall sentiment seemed “very positive.”

Millimeter Wave

T-Mobile says new millimeter-wave technology added to its low-band 5G network will allow customers with enabled smartphones to enjoy the faster speeds in places like Hard Rock Stadium -- the Super Bowl venue -- and Bayfront Park, which borders Biscayne Boulevard.

“All these network upgrades mean T-Mobile customers in and around the city can snap, share and stream from the big game with great coverage and serious speed,” Neville Ray, president of technology at T-Mobile, said in a statement. A company representative added that most of T-Mobile’s 5G expansion in Miami has used existing infrastructure.

Sprint Corp.’s “massive MIMO” 5G technology doesn’t include millimeter-wave poles, and the company has mostly used existing infrastructure for the rollout in Miami, said Scott Santi, senior vice president for network engineering and deployment. T-Mobile has agreed to acquire Sprint in a $26.5 billion deal that’s facing a court challenge by several states.

“We want to avoid putting a pole in the middle of a sidewalk that might upset the neighbors in the area as far as aesthetics,” Santi said.

Long-Term Investment

AT&T’s Super Bowl-related investment in 5G equipment for Miami will serve customers there long after the game is over, spokesman Jim Greer said in a statement. “Our goal is to always minimize the effect on the community before, during and after construction,” he said. “We also work quickly to address any concerns related to our network upgrades.”

Verizon has been making 5G network preparations in Miami over the past five years and the service launched last month in parts of downtown, Fort Lauderdale, the airport and the Miami Gardens area around Hard Rock Stadium, Schulz said.

Commissioner Higgins praised some installers for working with neighborhoods to use rooftops and existing infrastructure to place new 5G equipment, even though that’s not a legal obligation. She didn’t dispute the benefits the new technology will eventually bring to the area but said there was no need for the rush.

“5G is going to be amazing when it comes -- we’re all excited about this,” she said, pointing to the lightning-fast speeds and ways the technology will be used for autonomous vehicles. “But none of that exists now. Apple doesn’t even make a 5G-compatible phone.”

--With assistance from Jonathan Levin and Scott Moritz.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nathan Crooks in Miami at ncrooks@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sebastian Tong at stong41@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III, Nick Turner

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