City of Fresno Announces: Open for Business for Small Cells

The City of Fresno announced that it will be listing more than 35,000 city-owned assets for small cells on November 15.  Carriers, connectivity and technology companies may reserve sites through an online portal.  The City of Fresno signed an exclusive agreement with 5 Bars XG Communities to market and organize the release of its assets.

This effort puts the City of Fresno on the cutting edge with the first-ever deployment in California of a system that will help them prepare for 5G and emerging technologies, IoT and autonomous vehicles.  To meet this exponential demand, carriers, connectivity providers, and technology companies will need to invest aggressively in small cells over the next couple years.  The City of Fresno has already received significant interest from major carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, as well as technology companies, such as Facebook and Google.

The major challenge to small cell deployments has been the significant time it takes to deploy small cells.  One of the major telecommunications infrastructure companies indicated that the process takes multiple years per small cell. 5 Bars XG Communities and the City of Fresno are poised to help address this challenge.

Bryon Horn, CIO for the City of Fresno, said “Fresno is excited to be an innovator in this space with the goal to be on the leading edge of connectivity.  This is the first time something like this has been done nationally.”

The City of Fresno is planning ahead to accommodate future economic plans, including the expansion of a dedicated commuter train line to Silicon Valley over the next four-years.  The new commuter train line is expected to bring new residents, including people who are commuting daily to Silicon Valley.

5 Bars XG Communities is launching a proprietary site selection and reservation platform to enable the reservation of hundreds of these sites at one time.  The City of Fresno and 5 Bars XG Communities has created an orderly, fair, and transparent process that reduces the complexity for carriers and cities and expedites the deployment of small cells.

Monnie McGaffigan, President of 5 Bars XG Communities, said that “The City of Fresno launch is the culmination of a three-year investment and lots of hard work by our team.  We’re excited to launch the new site selection system with Fresno, who has been a strong ally in innovating in this space.”

Other Californian cities have also played a large part in changing how small cell deployments will work.  The City of Sacramento has been working to streamline its approval process for small cell deployments.  5 Bars XG Communities is in the process of deploying its first small cells in Sacramento.  5 Bars XG Communities has exclusive marketing agreements with more than 25 cities, including Alameda, CA, Irvine, CA and St. Louis, MO and is planning to expand to other cities in the coming months.

About 5 Bars

5 Bars XG Communities (XG Communities dba 5 Bars) is based in Irvine, CA.  The company provides services on behalf of cities to market and organize city assets to be leased for small cell deployments in cities and municipalities across the country.