Parties in N.J. County’s Small-Cells Fight vs. Verizon Seek Settlement Conference

Counsel for all parties in Verizon’s small-cells dispute with Monmouth County, New Jersey, agree that “it may be beneficial” to schedule an initial settlement conference, with clients in attendance, they wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Brendan Day for New Jersey in Trenton Tuesday (docket 3:23-cv-18091). They asked the judge to schedule the settlement conference for the morning of April 19, “which is the only common date of availability for all of the parties,” said their letter. Verizon alleges that the county’s denial of its application to install nine small cells in the public rights of way violated Section 332 of the Telecommunications Act because the denial wasn’t supported by substantial evidence in the written record (see 2309080048). The judge’s March 7 memorandum order granted seven Belmar, New Jersey, residents' motion to permissively intervene as defendants in the dispute (see 2403080039).