Editor’s note: This op-ed runs long — but it’s the most direct argument we’ve published on carrier-contractor power dynamics in years, and it doesn’t stop at complaining. Clif Peterson names the problem, backs it with sourcing, and puts three specific asks on the table for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Worth the read. By Wireless Estimator Contributor Clif Peterson For nearly …
Hunter Deeley named FCC enforcement chief in move toward national-security-focused oversight
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr named Hunter Deeley Chief of the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau on August 31, elevating him from Chief of Staff and Deputy Bureau Chief to lead the office responsible for policing compliance with the Communications Act across every regulated entity the FCC oversees, wireless infrastructure included. Deeley succeeds Patrick Webre, who moves into a senior role in the …
Illinois becomes the final domino as NTIA approves all 56 BEAD plans
Nearly five years after Congress created the $42.45 billion BEAD program, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration says every state and territory finally has an approved plan for spending it. NTIA announced August 26 that it had signed off on the last of the 56 state and territorial Final Proposals, with Illinois closing out a list that has been shrinking …
Clear the room: NWSA tightens the rules for taking its online exams
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) today reminded certification candidates and industry stakeholders that its previously announced zero-tolerance policy for exam environment requirements will take effect September 1, 2026. The policy reinforces NWSA’s commitment to maintaining the integrity, fairness, validity, and reliability of its professional trade certification programs for the communications infrastructure industry. Beginning September 1st, candidates whose testing environments …
FCC rules RF limits protect humans only, clearing way for Harmoni Towers’ 260-foot Montana tower
The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has cleared the way for Harmoni Towers to build a 260-foot cell tower in Montana’s Swan Valley, ruling against a group of local residents who argued the site would harm nesting eagles and other wildlife. The August 20 decision does more than resolve one tower fight — it puts the Commission on record stating, more …
NATE, EHSCP pack six panels and a two-speaker keynote into Minnesota safety symposium
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Associationand the Environmental, Health & Safety Communications Panel (EHSCP) packed six panels, a two-speaker keynote luncheon, and a full slate of committee meetings into three days in Bloomington, Minnesota, closing out the 2026 NATE-EHSCP Summer Symposium Powered by NATE WIN with a session titled, fittingly, “Hot and Spicy Safety Topics.” The event ran August 11 …
Crop duster crashes into Basin Mediactive’s 45-year-old AM tower array near Olene, pilot critically injured
A crop duster pilot suffered major injuries Thursday morning after his aircraft struck a Basin Mediactive, LLC AM radio tower near Olene, Oregon — one of a four-tower directional array that has stood on the site since 1981, 45 years before the crash. A witness pulled the pilot from the burning wreckage before emergency crews arrived. Pilot Gus Macy, described …
Dish Wireless’s bankruptcy exit slides to December as tower companies press their $7.6 billion claim
Dish Wireless’s exit from Chapter 11 keeps sliding to the right, and tower companies are the reason why. A Houston bankruptcy judge said last week that if Crown Castle, American Tower and SBA Communications get the trial they’re pushing for on roughly $7.6 billion in disputed lease claims, the hearing to confirm Dish’s bankruptcy plan won’t start before December 2 …
New York’s ConnectALL broadband grants got $38 million more expensive and 34,000 connections smaller
New York quietly widened the price tag on its two flagship broadband grant programs by roughly $38 million over the past two years — while cutting the number of homes and businesses those same programs promise to connect by about 34,000, according to an analysis published August 18 by the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York …
New York Times’ Paxton cell tower ownership story asks one real question — Then answers none of it
COMMENTARY Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, is facing a new round of financial scrutiny after The New York Times reported August 10 that he has drawn six-figure income for years from a cell tower company he co-founded in 2005 — one that landed a site on the grounds of a Frisco, Texas …
Dehydrated tower tech pulled from 275-foot level of Rockford, IL broadcast tower after three-hour rescue
A tower tech was rescued Monday afternoon from a broadcast tower at WTVO-TV/WQRF-TV in Rockford, Illinois, after suffering what officials believe was a dehydration-related medical emergency 275 feet above ground, according to WTVO. Rockford Fire and the Northwest Fire Protection District responded to the station at 1917 N. Meridian Road just after 3 p.m. Monday, according to WTVO. The climber …
SpaceX’s terrestrial network has a timing problem: Nobody’s buying new phones
SpaceX’s plan to compete with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon runs into a market reality that has nothing to do with satellites, spectrum, or rooftop small cells: people are holding onto their phones longer than they have in years, at the exact moment SpaceX needs them to buy new ones. A network that requires new hardware, launching into a slumping upgrade …
Trump nominates FCC’s Thumann, NATE’s 2026 Regulatory Champion, to fill commission vacancy
President Trump nominated Danielle Thumann Severs, currently senior counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, to fill one of two open seats on the five-member commission, the White House announced Friday. For an industry that spends considerable time navigating FCC wireline, public safety, and infrastructure policy, the nomination carries a detail worth flagging directly: Thumann Severs spent a year in the …
GAO audit flags BEAD fraud risk, but the program’s own track record undercuts the headline
A new Government Accountability Office report has BEAD sitting in some uncomfortable company: the $16.9 billion broadband grant program made GAO’s list of federal initiatives most structurally exposed to fraud, alongside Medicaid, SNAP, and disaster assistance funding. The report, “Combating Fraud: Managing Risks in Federally Funded, State-Administered Programs” (GAO-26-109100), published July 23, reviewed 20 of the largest federally funded, state-administered …
FCC adds foreign-made robots, power inverters to covered list over national security risk
The FCC has updated its Covered List to add two new categories of foreign-produced equipment: advanced robotic devices — defined as mobile robots including humanoids and quadrupeds — and connected power inverters. The action follows determinations by a White House-convened Executive Branch interagency body with national security expertise, which found both categories “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of …
SpaceX wants to be a fourth major network, but it’s building around towers, not on them
SpaceX used its first earnings call as a public company this week to say out loud what the industry had been speculating about for months: it intends to build a terrestrial mobile network and go head-to-head with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told investors during the Q&A that the EchoStar spectrum “does have terrestrial components, so we …
24 hours to take down a cell site? EHT’s fundraising “investigation” doesn’t survive its own timeline
The Christian Post ran two stories on a Maryland Lutheran church’s rooftop cell site, an industry media outlet picked up the coverage, and then Environmental Health Trust published a triumphant press release on July 14 crediting its own “investigatory” work with getting the site removed — “one of the fastest, most gratifying results from an investigation in EHT’s history,” in …
Alleged Iran-linked Minnesota water hack should be a wake-up call for mobile networks, too
Iranian hackers likely breached dozens of municipal water systems in Minnesota this week, according to U.S. and state officials cited by The New York Times, temporarily knocking at least one city’s well and treatment plant offline and forcing other municipalities into manual workarounds to fend off attempted intrusions into automated operations. No water was rendered unsafe to drink. But the …
Tower Family Foundation appoints PerfectVision’s Ryan Hutchcroft to the Endowment Committee
The Tower Family Foundation announced today that Ryan Hutchcroft, Director of Sales – North Region for PerfectVision, has been appointed to serve on the Foundation’s Endowment Committee. The Endowment Committee plays a vital role in ensuring the long-term sustainability and impact of the Foundation’s mission. While the Tower Family Foundation provides critical financial assistance to tower workers and their families …
Massachusetts’ top court: Local health boards can’t shut down cell towers over RF fears
Four years ago, Wireless Estimator reported that some members of Pittsfield’s Board of Health privately doubted their own cease-and-desist order against a Verizon cell tower would survive a legal fight — even as the board voted to spend $84,000 defending it. On Thursday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court confirmed those doubts were well-founded, ruling that the board never had the …
