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Alphabet Inc is shutting down Loon after determining the business, which offers balloons as an alternative to cell towers, is not commercially viable, Google’s parent company said on Thursday. Since 2011, the company has been trying to bring connectivity to areas of the world where building a cell tower network is too expensive and realized a decade later that even …
Geo catch puts California man behind bars for Verizon cell site batteries theft
A 32-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing four deep-cycle batteries which were used to power a San Bernardino, California Verizon cell tower site, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. On January 14, a suspect cut two padlocks to access the cell towner site at 17101 State 330 Highway. Unbeknownst to the thief, the batteries were equipped with …
Maine city and its planning board’s monopole siting spat could result in $1,000-a-day contempt fines
Bay Communications III LLC of Mansfield, Massachusetts wants to erect a 120-foot monopole on 182 Camden Street in Rockland, Maine and has had to resort to asking a federal court to find the city and its planning board in contempt of court for failing to follow through on a negotiated settlement reached in a November 12, 2020 U.S. District Court …
NATE requests COVID-19 vaccination priority status for industry’s technician workforce
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association has sent letters to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Governors Association to request that the telecom industry’s technicians be accorded priority status in the COVID-19 vaccination hierarchy the CDC has recommended and that states are now tasked with distributing. The NATE letters make …
American Tower enters Europe in $9.4 Billion Telefonica deal
American Tower Corporation today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with Telefónica, S.A. (“Telefónica”), under which it will acquire Telxius Towers, comprising approximately 31,000 existing communications sites in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina. The total consideration for the transaction is approximately €7.7 billion (approximately $9.4 billion at current foreign exchange rates), subject to customary closing adjustments. …
Tower tech is undergoing surgery after a 140-foot fall in New York
A tower tech fell approximately 140 feet from a guyed tower in Lawrence, New York yesterday at about 11:00 a.m. while doing a T-Mobile upgrade, according to individuals knowledgeable of the accident. St. Lawrence County sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene off of Ferris Road and the technician was taken by Tri-Town Rescue to Canton-Potsdam Hospital. The man, in his …
Will it be Senator or President Legere or just more social media chatter while it’s allowed?
The day after the 2016 presidential election that put Donald Trump in office, T-Mobile CEO John Legere Tweeted: “Congrats to the new POTUS. Let’s see what an out of the box, non-typical, non-politician can do for America.” Last Thursday, reacting to the mob that attacked the Capitol, he wasn’t happy with what he saw and requested: “POTUS, please step down …
Tipsy Bobcat operator arrested for threatening cell site workers
Over the years, cell site techs have been shot at with handguns, rifles and even arrows, but a new worksite violence wrinkle occurred Tuesday morning at a rural site in Dassel Township, Minnesota when a 67-year-old man weaponized a Bobcat skid loader because he was upset that the men were working where he could see them from his nearby home. …
Colony Capital’s Los Angeles roots replanted in Boca Raton as part of its corporate realignment
Colony Capital, Inc. announced the relocation of its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles, California to Boca Raton, Florida, effective as of January 1, 2021. In addition, Colony announced the appointment of select corporate officers to new roles as part of its ongoing digital transformation. Digital Colony, the company’s digital infrastructure investment management business has been based in Boca Raton for …
NATE’s free 5G small cell deployment training courses open for registration
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association announced today that the registration process is open for the first, five 5G-Small Cell Deployment Training sessions that will be facilitated by the Association in 2021. Overall, 12 5G-Small Cell Deployment Training Courses will be hosted nationwide in 2021 and will be offered free of charge to industry employees and employers due to a Susan …
Latchways Standard Self-Retracting Lifeline recall alert
MSA is issuing this User Safety Notice to inform the industry that MSA has received field reports of a limited number of Latchways Standard Self-Retracting Lifelines (SRL) in which some internal bolts came loose. MSA has not received any reports of injuries associated with this condition. However, we are requesting that you perform the actions outlined in this notice. Over time, …
Cord cutter Cooper’s memoir is a stunning tale of cell phone history and the next chapter – artificial intelligence
One of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Inventors in History, Martin Cooper, shares an insider’s story of the cell phone, how it changed the world—and a view of where it’s headed in his new book released today, Cutting the Cord: The Cell Phone Has Transformed Humanity. While at Motorola in the 1970s, wireless communications pioneer Cooper invented the first handheld mobile …
Sadly, 2020’s top stories were fatalities and structural failures
What were the most-read stories published by Wireless Estimator this year? It’s not surprising to learn that any media with a large audience of contractors, tower owners, tower techs, engineers, safety professionals, and vendors would find that two topics – fatalities and structural failures — dominate the list. According to Google Analytics, the most viewed article in 2020 was the …
FBI checking to see if 5G paranoia may have been the motive in Nashville bombing
Law enforcement officials are not certain if 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner’s motive for driving his RV to downtown Nashville, Tennessee Christmas morning, allowing himself to be shred to pieces as the vehicle exploded on Second Avenue North was because he believed that 5G technology was killing people. Still, the former IT worker’s alleged belief appears to be their best lead. Douglas Korneski, …
Pai and Loebsack honored by NATE for their untiring efforts in advancing broadband initiatives
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association announced today that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Congressman Dave Loebsack, U.S. Representative for the 3rd District of Iowa, are the recipients of the 2020 NATE Regulatory and Legislative Champion Awards respectively. Chairman Pai was honored with the 2020 NATE Regulatory Champion Award. During his tenure, he has played a leading role shaping policies that …
OSHA, NATE and the FCC ink long-sought strategic safety partnership
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has signed a national strategic partnership with NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve worker safety in the communications tower erection industry. The goal of the three-year partnership is to eliminate worker injuries and fatalities while performing wireless and telecommunications, tower erection …
Guy wire cutting crime spree topples one Texas tower, destabilized a 1,000-footer
A tall tower crew is on site in Wichita Falls, Texas, stabilizing a 1,050-foot TV broadcast tower owned by Nexstar Media Group, Inc., off 4500 Seymour highway. It is one of two towers that had guy wires cut early Friday morning, with a 450-foot structure giving way to actions of those that authorities have stated committed a “serious felony”. The …
Tower tech succumbs from 260-foot fall while endeavoring to bring broadband to the Spokane tribe
UPDATE: December 17, 2020 – James Shumate’s obituary and services information have been added below. December 16, 2020 — A 24-year-old tower technician was killed Saturday, December 12, 2020 when he fell from a tower near Fruitland, Washington. According to individuals knowledgeable of the incident, James Everette Shumate of Houston, Texas was at approximately 260 feet on the structure while …
CenturyLink skates with a questionably low $500K fine for its 2018 outage
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has fined CenturyLink Inc. a half-million dollars for their December 27-28, 2018 multi-state outage caused by one of the company’s transport networks which, affected delivery of some 911 calls. In August, 2019, the bureau in cooperation with the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released a scathing report detailing the cause and impact of the nationwide network outage …
American Tower is undaunted by Dish’s 20,000 tower deal with Crown, they’ll wait for their turn
When questioned as to whether Crown Castle will become the main beneficiary of Dish Network’s entry into the carrier space during a UBS Global TMT conference call earlier this month, American Tower CFO and Treasurer Rod Smith said that history might be the best prophet to identify if his company will profit. Smith said he thought it was “great” that …
