Town of Hilton Head Island, S.C., leaders unanimously voted last week to add 5G wireless boxes to the land management ordinance — which makes the town able to regulate them later.
The 5G boxes, also called “small cell wireless facilities,” are designed to increase the efficiency of mobile networks. If 5G comes to the island, it will mean “faster download speeds and the capability to run more complex mobile devices,” according to the municipal association.
Although there are no permits for 5G boxes in front of council now, municipalities like Hilton Head want to be able to control what the boxes look like in the future, according to town leaders.
“This is a home rule issue for us,” town council member David Ames said of the ordinance at the Sept. 17 council meeting. “(It) allows us in this municipality to decide what we want.”
Boxes are typically spaced about a mile apart, the municipal association says, so Hilton Head Island likely will have several. Local leaders heard the issue because state legislators are expected to tackle it in January.
House Bill 4262, the South Carolina Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act, was approved by the House in April but didn’t make it to the Senate before the end of the legislative session. The Senate will pick it up in January 2020 at the start of the new session.
“Encouraging the development of strong and robust wireless and broadband communications networks throughout the state is integral to the state’s economic competitiveness,” the bill said.
Critics of 5G capabilities say that the network will make more people susceptible to cybercrime.
“Ransomware, malware, crypto-jacking, identity theft and data breaches have become so common that more Americans are afraid of cybercrime than they are of becoming a victim of violent crime,” Sue Halpern wrote for The New Yorker in April 2019. “Adding more devices to the online universe is destined to create more opportunities for disruption.”
The Hilton Head town council will hear the ordinance again in October, when they will vote on it for a final time.
©2019 The Island Packet (Hilton Head, S.C.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
