Milwaukee District Appealing Small-Cells Judgment in Verizon’s Favor

Milwaukee’s Deer District, an intervenor-defendant in Verizon’s small-cells dispute with the city, is appealing to the 7th U.S. District Court of Appeals a district judge’s Jan. 29 decision and order requiring the city to issue Verizon its requested permits, said the district’s notice of appeal Friday (docket 2:23-cv-01581) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Verizon is seeking the permits to enable it to install the small cells and custom-designed poles it needs to remedy coverage gaps in time for July’s Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum (see 2401300044). U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee found that the city’s professed reasons for denying Verizon’s permit applications “were not supported by substantial evidence and were, in fact, a mere pretense.” He said the city’s actual reason for denying the permits was to assist its sublessee, the Deer District, a private entity that prefers that Verizon use an alternative fee-based distributed antenna system it’s developing to remedy wireless coverage gaps in the pedestrian mall outside the Fiserv Forum. The 7th Circuit docketed the appeal Monday as case 24-1212. Milwaukee isn't a party to the appeal.