N.J. County Denies It Materially Inhibited Verizon’s Wireless Services

Verizon may not assert a Telecommunications Act claim for Monmouth County’s failure to comply with the FCC’s 2018 shot clock order on small wireless facilities in denying Verizon’s application to install nine SWFs in the public right of way, said the county’s answer Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-18091) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Trenton to Verizon’s Sept. 7 TCA complaint (see 2309080048). Verizon alleges the county’s denial wasn’t supported by substantial evidence in the written record, as the TCA requires, and that the denial also constituted a material inhibition of service, in violation of the TCA’s Sections 332 and 253. But the documents that Verizon submitted to the county in support of its application to install the nine SWFs in the public ROW didn’t constitute “a proper application” under the county’s regulations or Verizon’s preexisting ROW agreement with the county, said the county’s answer. Even if the Verizon documents did constitute a proper application, which the county doesn’t concede, the county acted on Verizon’s request “within the applicable shot clock,” it said. If and to the extent that the county failed to act within the shot clock, the failure to act “was reasonable under the circumstances,” it said. The county therefore didn’t materially inhibit Verizon “from introducing new services or improving existing services,” it said. The county is entitled to a judgment that Verizon’s submission to the county engineer wasn’t a proper application “for purposes of the TCA,” said the county’s counterclaim. It’s also entitled to a judgment that the ROW agreement doesn’t cover SWFs “that are to be installed on newly constructed poles,” it said. To the extent that Verizon relies on the ROW agreement in support of its claims, Verizon is precluded from bringing this action under the TCA, it said. The county also seeks a judgment that Verizon “materially breached” the ROW agreement, it said. Seven residents of Belmar, New Jersey, who previously asked to intervene against Verizon’s complaint to force the county’s approval of the SWFs application, now seek the complaint’s dismissal (see 2310180031). U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp set a Nov. 20 deadline for responses to the residents’ motion to dismiss, said his text-only order Wednesday.