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SENATE BILL 164
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Michael Padilla
AN ACT
RELATING TO COMMUNICATIONS; AMENDING THE WIRELESS CONSUMER
ADVANCED INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT ACT TO INCLUDE POLITICAL
SUBDIVISIONS AND STATE AGENCIES IN THE DEFINITION OF
"AUTHORITY"; CLARIFYING THE DEFINITION OF "RIGHT OF WAY".
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 63-9I-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2018,
Chapter 17, Section 2 and Laws 2018, Chapter 69, Section 2) is
amended to read:
"63-9I-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Wireless Consumer
Advanced Infrastructure Investment Act:
A. "antenna" means communications equipment that
transmits or receives electromagnetic radio frequency signals
and that is used to provide wireless services;
B. "applicable codes" means uniform building, fire,
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electrical, plumbing or mechanical codes adopted by a
recognized national code organization and enacted by the
authority, including the local amendments to those codes
enacted by the authority solely to address imminent threats of
destruction of property or injury to persons, to the extent
that those amendments are consistent with the Wireless Consumer
Advanced Infrastructure Investment Act;
C. "applicant" means a wireless provider that
submits an application;
D. "application" means a request submitted by an
applicant to an authority for a permit to collocate one or more
small wireless facilities or to approve the installation,
modification or replacement of a utility pole or wireless
support structure;
E. "authority" means a [municipality or county ]
political subdivision of the state or a state agency ;
F. "authority utility pole" means a utility pole,
owned or operated by an authority, in a right of way;
G. "collocate" means to install, mount, maintain,
modify, operate or replace one or more wireless facilities on,
in or adjacent to a wireless support structure or utility pole;
H. "communications service" means cable service as
defined in 47 U.S.C. Section 522(6), information service as
defined in 47 U.S.C. Section 153(24), mobile service as defined
in 47 U.S.C. Section 153(33), telecommunications service as
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defined in 47 U.S.C. Section 153(53) or wireless service other
than mobile service;
I. "fee" means a one-time charge;
J. "law" includes federal, state or local law;
K. "permit" means the written permission of an
authority for a wireless provider to install, mount, maintain,
modify, operate or replace a utility pole or to collocate a
small wireless facility on a utility pole or wireless support
structure;
L. "person":
(1) means an individual, corporation, limited
liability company, partnership, association, trust or other
entity or organization; and
(2) includes an authority;
M. "private easement" means an easement or other
real property right given for the benefit of the grantee of the
easement and the grantee's successors and assigns;
N. "rate" means a recurring charge;
O. "right of way":
(1) means the area on, below or above a public
roadway, highway, street, sidewalk, alley or utility easement;
and
(2) does not include the area on, below or
above:
[(a) a federal interstate highway;
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(b) a state highway or route under the
jurisdiction of the department of transportation ]
(a) a federal or state highway, road or
patrol yard, including patrol yards owned, controlled or
maintained by the department of transportation. The terms
"road" or "highway" include a travel lane, roadside area,
shoulder, median, ditch, culvert, ramp, turnout and
construction or maintenance easement;
[(c)] (b) a private easement; or
[(d)] (c) a utility easement that does
not authorize the deployment sought by a wireless provider;
P. "small wireless facility" means a wireless
facility whose:
(1) antennas are, or could fit, inside an
enclosure with a volume of six or fewer cubic feet; and
(2) other ground- or pole-mounted wireless
equipment, not including the following, is twenty-eight or
fewer cubic feet in volume:
(a) electric meter;
(b) concealment elements;
(c) telecommunications demarcation box;
(d) grounding equipment;
(e) power transfer switch;
(f) cutoff switch;
(g) vertical cable runs for the
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connection of power and other services; and
(h) elements required by an authority in
accordance with Subsection H of Section [3 of the Wireless
Consumer Advanced Infrastructure Investment Act ] 63-9I-3 NMSA
1978;
Q. "utility pole":
(1) means a pole or similar structure used in
whole or in part for communications services, electricity
distribution, lighting or traffic signals; and
(2) does not include a wireless support
structure or electric transmission structure;
R. "wireless facility":
(1) means equipment at a fixed location that
enables wireless communications between user equipment and a
communications network, including:
(a) equipment associated with wireless
communications; and
(b) radio transceivers, antennas,
coaxial or fiber-optic cables, regular and backup power
supplies and comparable equipment, regardless of technological
configuration;
(2) includes a small wireless facility; and
(3) does not include:
(a) the structure or improvements on,
under or within which the equipment is collocated;
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(b) a wireline backhaul facility,
coaxial cable or fiber-optic cable between wireless support
structures or utility poles; or
(c) coaxial or fiber-optic cable
otherwise not immediately adjacent to, or directly associated
with, an antenna;
S. "wireless infrastructure provider" means a
person, other than a wireless services provider, that may
provide telecommunications service in New Mexico and that
builds or installs wireless communications transmission
equipment, wireless facilities' utility poles or wireless
support structures;
T. "wireless provider" means a wireless
infrastructure provider or wireless services provider;
U. "wireless services" means services provided to
the public that use licensed or unlicensed spectrum, either
mobile or at a fixed location, through wireless facilities;
V. "wireless services provider" means a person that
provides wireless services;
W. "wireless support structure" means a
freestanding structure, including a monopole or guyed or
self-supporting tower, but not including a utility pole; and
X. "wireline backhaul facility" means a facility
used to transport services by wire from a wireless facility to
a network."
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