The city of Warrenton has approved a company to mount small antennas on public utility poles in order to boost the signal for cellphone data service.In an agreement with Extenet, a company that contracts for cellphone providers, Warrenton agreed to allow the use of poles within the public right of way for these “small cell” antennas, explained City Attorney Christopher Graville.“The old style was, they had these huge towers they built with multiple antennas. That has gone somewhat to the wayside with the huge increase in the amount of data usage for cellphones,” said Graville. “(Companies) now do these small cell antennas that give more coverage for data usage and provide more coverage for the data element, not necessarily the cellphone element.”Graville explained the agreement during a public meeting with the Warrenton Board of Aldermen Dec. 4. He said whenever a cellphone carrier like AT&T or Verizon receives a complaint about poor data service in an area, they often use a third-party company such as Extenet to address the issue.The antennas are not very noticeable, Graville said.Alderman Gary Auch expressed concern about low fee amounts that Extenet would pay to install the antennas, saying they weren’t much to recoup the cost the city has already put into this agreement. Graville explained that the fees are capped by state law.In fact, Graville said the Missouri General Assembly recently passed a statute saying that cities have to allow installation of small cell wireless antennas in public right of way, within reasonable rules and regulations.More requests for these types of small cell agreements are anticipated, Graville added, likely meaning the city will eventually require one master agreement that companies can sign onto.As things stand, within city limits Extenet is contracted with Ameren to place the antennas at the top of electric poles, he said. In the future, the city and Extenet could negotiate an agreement for the small cell company to install its own utility poles.Cellphones