City Council voted unanimously Tuesday (Dec. 20) to approve an ordinance giving a utility company permission to install 12 new cell phone antennas in Ocean City.

Approval of the second and final reading of the ordinance gives NextG Networks (headquartered in Milpitas, CA) rights of way to install the equipment. Council voted 5-0 to pass the ordinance (with John Kemenosh and Karen Bergman not present).

"These facilities expand the capability of a cellular network dramatically," Peter Broy, director of government relations at NextG Networks, told City Council in an initial presentation in October.

Ocean City residents and visitors experienced a virtual shutdown of service during busy summer weekends — when more than 100,000 people competed for bandwidth to connect their smartphones, laptops and other wireless devices with the rest of the world.

Broy's company is not a cellular service provider. It's a "carrier's carrier," planning, building and operating the equipment used by cell phone companies.

NextG currently has a contract only with AT&T to provide expanded service in Ocean City, though another company, such as Verizon, could use the same equipment if they strike a deal with NextG.

Until last year, AT&T was the exclusive service provider for the iPhone and iPad.

NextG will use three existing utility poles, two Boardwalk buildings, a fire station and six new utility poles to house its 12 new antennas.

The company will pay Ocean City 5 percent of its earnings on each pole, about $350 each, according to Broy.

As a licensed utility company, NextG has rights to install the equipment even without city permits, according to City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson. But the company sought Ocean City's permission and input as a courtesy.

The new equipment will be focused on an area between First and 12th streets, Broy said, and future expansion is a possibility based on demand.

During the summer starting on a busy Memorial Day Weekend, wireless customers found their service slowed dramatically at high-volume times and often failed to work at all.

The slowdowns affected by businesses who rely on wireless connections and visitors trying to make cell phone calls, check email or sneak in a little bit of work time on their vacations.

“We added a fourth carrier by the end of May,” AT&T spokesperson Brandy Bell told Ocean City Patch this summer. “Adding a carrier is like adding a lane to a highway that’s congested. It opens things up, adding more access to the network.”

Bell said data usage on the AT&T network increased 8,000 percent from 2007 to 2010, and is expected to continue to grow. She said AT&T added cell towers in Avalon and Sea Isle City to proactively address customer need, and AT&T kept its truck, known as Cell On Wheels (or COW), parked at Shelter Road in Ocean City through the end of summer.