Danbury’s 5G landscape changing with new carrier’s entrance

Translation: Dish Wireless wants to take the antenna space once used by Sprint atop the former Crowne Plaza Hotel, a 10-story building undergoing its own post-COVID change into “innovation studios.”

The new industry standard known as 5G provides faster speeds, less connection lags, and more capacity to integrate multiple devices without bogging down the network. The city’s Planning Commission is set to approve Dish Wireless’ 5G antenna request on Wednesday.

“Is this equipment going to replace what’s there or is it in addition, and is it a different service than what is currently there?” asked Planning Commission Vice Chairman Robert Chiocchio during a public hearing last month.

“It is going to take the place of Sprint antennas,” Ranciato-Viele said. “They are not going to be in the exact same place as Sprint on the rooftop, but we are going to be up there, and Sprint is coming down. Dish has its own brand so people would subscribe to Dish.”

“I don’t really have any issue with this,” Chiocchio said. “They are replacing some antennas where three other carriers have existing equipment up there, so it is not going to be any taller or much different.”

The commission chairman agreed, noting that he sees the roofline of antennas as he takes the onramp to Interstate 84 from Old Ridgebury Road.

“(It’s) not the most beautiful thing in the world to look at but this situation doesn’t seem to make it any worse, so I have no objection to it,” Arnold Finaldi said.

City Council member Paul Rotello questioned what impact the antenna’s energy patterns would have on neighbors.

“There’s a condominium complex due east … and there’s a lot of single-family residences north and west,” Rotello said during the March 27 public hearing, referring to the neighbors of the former hotel. “And generally when you guys do transmission towers you basically beam the energy directly above them. So my query is where is the directed energy going?”

“There is one antenna that is going directly toward the on-ramp,” Ranciato-Viele responded. “The second and third (antennas) are on the complete opposite side of the building…and they are shooting out diagonally … toward the existing parking lot and the other one looks like it is shooting out sort of in the direction of Old Ridgebury Road.”

“We do always follow the (federal 1996) Telecommunications Act as far as the (radiofrequency) emissions,” Ranciato-Viele added. “We are always within the guidelines.”

Dish Wireless’ entrance into Danbury’s 5G market comes four years after T-Mobile’s $26 billion takeover of Sprint, leaving the country with only three major cellphone companies. Federal regulators allowed the merger after Dish Network agreed to become a fourth competitor to Verizon, AT&T, and the new T-Mobile Sprint.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all have antennas atop the former Crowne Plaza hotel, which was bought out of COVID-induced bankruptcy by downtown Danbury developer Dan Bertram. Bertram plans to convert the 240 hotel into 195 “innovation studios,” with three floors devoted to workspace for entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and start-up businesspeople.

Reach Rob at rryser@newstimes.com or 203-731-3342