OE-CNT-DEC20150009: CONATEL regulation of 16 January 2015 on standards for antenna tower installation (Le Moniteur, 170th year No. 52, 19 March 2015)

Le Moniteur, 170th year No. 52, of Thursday 19 March 2015, carries CONATEL regulation OE-CNT-DEC20150009 of 16 January 2015, alongside non-reimbursable financing agreement 3383/GR-HA between Haiti and the Inter-American Development Bank and extracts from the trade and manufacturing marks register.

The regulation is the only detailed construction code for telecommunications infrastructure in this corpus. Article 1 states its object as the registration procedures and the standards applying to antenna towers, and Article 2 fixes the definitions. Articles 3 to 5 adopt external standards directly: the obstacle rules of ICAO Annex 14, ITU-T recommendation K.56 on protection against lightning, and ITU-T recommendation K.50 on safety limits for electrical currents and voltages.

Articles 6 to 9 set the permitting regime. A tower on a building roof requires an authorization; a tower installed anywhere requires an authorization from CONATEL; a ground-mounted tower is subject to prior declaration. Article 10 requires obstacle lights along coastal regions to avoid interfering with maritime navigation. Articles 11 and 12 assign each declared or authorized tower a CONATEL registration number, an alphanumeric series encoding its characteristics. Articles 13 to 15 cover the generators feeding tower equipment, protection of access to antennas and electrical or radio equipment, and a requirement that towers withstand lateral winds of at least 180 kilometres an hour. Articles 16 to 18 handle filing, including the treatment of incomplete files and towers already covered by another procedure. Article 19 forbids towers that would obstruct air navigation.

Articles 20 to 30 set the obstacle-screening principle under Article 116 of the decree of 12 October 1977, covering when a building or terrain screens a tower, how neighbouring objects of the same height are treated, how a group of towers is marked or lit, and the alternating orange and white banding applied by tower dimension, with an entirely orange treatment for structures below a size threshold.

The sanctions run from 20,000 to 100,000 gourdes for an installation breach, 30,000 to 150,000 gourdes with decommissioning for a tower put up without the required authorization, a daily fine of 5,000 to 100,000 gourdes, and 50,000 to 150,000 gourdes in the remaining cases.