New cell firm moving in

A Dallas-based wireless communications company is moving into North Jersey.

In recent weeks, MetroPCS Communications Inc. has been quietly seeking permission to install transmission antennas throughout the area, filing applications for zoning approval in 89 municipalities, The Record has learned.

Included in the total are 15 towns in Bergen County, seven in Passaic and 10 in Hudson County. In many of the towns, MetroPCS has been forced to seek a zoning variance because the antennas would be a non-conforming use, and the company says it has received "verbal" approvals for 31 antenna sites.

MetroPCS has provided few details of its plans in the state, beyond issuing a list of municipalities to The Record last week. In addition, Frank Ferraro, a Northvale attorney who represented MetroPCS before the Fair Lawn zoning board, said he was "not at liberty" to discuss where else it was attempting to set up operations.

But in its filing with the Fair Lawn zoning board, MetroPCS said it "is in the beginning stages of building out its wireless network in the New York metropolitan area."

On May 19, the zoning board gave MetroPCS a variance to install six antennas on a water tower in the borough. The tower at Maple Avenue and Wagaraw Road already houses equipment for other wireless communications companies.

Fair Lawn officials were told that their borough was the first municipality in the area to give approval to MetroPCS, and that the antennas there would be part of a coverage area to include Paterson and Hawthorne, Todd Newman, vice chairman of the zoning board said.

MetroPCS' May 21 request for a permit to install antennas on a water tower on Lanza Avenue in Garfield was denied as non-conforming, City Manager Thomas Duch said.

The company has not submitted a variance request to the zoning board, Duch said.

MetroPCS, whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, said in its quarterly earnings report in May that construction is ongoing in the Northeast, including the "New York City metropolitan area."

It has projected a launch date in the region for the first half of next year.

MetroPCS offers calling plans starting at $30 a month, a rate comparable to those offered by other carriers. The company offers a flat-rate service with no signed contract, allowing consumers to pay on a monthly basis.

MetroPCS, which began operations in 2002, owns or has access to licenses covering a population of about 140 million people in 14 of the top 25 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, including New York.

"Over the past 12 months, we have added over 1 million total subscribers, which represents approximately 30 percent subscriber growth when compared to the same period last year," Chief Executive Officer Roger Linquist said in a recent statement.

But the company has only a small piece of that business, with 4.4 million subscribers in Florida (the Miami, Orlando, Sarasota and Tampa metropolitan areas), Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and California (the San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento areas).

E-mail: demarrais@northjersey.com