The National Park Service wants to beef up cellphone service on the National Mall, potentially making 5G access available in the popular park that stretches from the U.S. Capitol to Potomac River.
The agency is accepting public input on a recently drafted study on how to accomplish a telecommunications upgrade, titledthe National Mall Telecommunications Infrastructure Plan. It’s open for public comment until Nov. 6.
The draft, completed last month, notes that both day-to-day tourism and national events draw large numbers of visitors to the mall. Those crowds can overwhelm the capacity of mobile phone networks, especially during peak hours, according to the study. Degraded cell service is also a challenge for federal employees, such as public safety officers who work on the mall.
The draft plan explores the “minimum” telecommunications infrastructure needed to increase each commercial cellphone company’s service capacity by potentially 400 percent. NPS also aims to protect the “views, character and historic resources of the park” during the upgrade. The objectives were laid out by a working group, led by the Department of Homeland Security and partnered with NPS. It met several times last year.
