Business relationships have an average shelf life of less than five years primarily because there is a lack of cohesiveness in shared visions. Tower owner SBA Communications and ExteNet Systems, a neutral host provider with some of the most profitable DAS locations in America, fit that model and decided to call it quits after five years, even though they seemed to …
Memorial fund set up after fiery crash takes the lives of five cell site workers in Florida
UPDATE – July 31, 2015 – Memorial services for all five crew members that died following the accident earlier this week will be on Monday, August 3, 2015 at 4:00 p.m. at the Mission of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 2150 Bomber Rd., Eagle Lake, Fla. The Wingate Communications Lost Employees Children’s Memorial Fund, has been set up to assist the deceased’s children. Donations have been coming …
Safety alliance reaches out to tower techs and appoints two climbers to their Board of Governors
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) announced today that Ed Owens from Broken Arrow Communications in Sacramento, Calif. and Kevin Schmidt from Sioux Falls Tower and Communications in Sioux Falls, S.D. have been selected to fill the tower technician seats on the organization’s inaugural Board of Governors. Owens and Schmidt were selected from a competitive applicant pool of 22 candidates …
First ever NATE regional meeting to be hosted in Kankakee, Illinois in September
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) will be hosting a Midwest regional meeting on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015 at the Kankakee Community College Banquet Center in Kankakee, Ill. The meeting will focus on key industry safety initiatives and offer tremendous networking and professional development opportunities for attendees. The meeting is open to NATE members as well as those companies …
Newest Hall of Shame tech should be severely disciplined or let go by his employer
The message is clear, 100% tie-off at all times. The message that you shouldn’t allow someone to be climbing a tower without adequate PPE, training and supervision is even clearer, especially since a 28-year-old Texas woman died last March after her boyfriend took her on a test climb on a site where he had no authorization to be and she fell …
In a surprise move, SBA walks out with cash and away from its investment in DAS
Five year DAS ride for SBA unexpectedly ends In a deal that took many industry observers by surprise, DAS developer ExteNet Systems, Inc. announced that Digital Bridge Holdings and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners will recapitalize the company with more than $1 billion dollars, and Digital Bridge’s CEO Marc Ganzi will assume the position of Chairman of the Board. Key members of …
Crown Castle’s tenants per tower take a slight dip as revenues show a marked increase
Although Crown Castle’s site rental revenues for the second quarter were up $26.3 million over its 2014 quarter, the tower owner’s average tenants per tower for sites operated for 10 years or longer fell off slightly in all BTAs. The tenant per tower average in the top 100 BTAs for sites operated 10 years or more was 2.9 compared to …
Four tower Maryland sales deal likely to add $75 million to Cumulus Media’s balance sheet
The sale of an array of four AM towers in Bethesda, Md. for a record $75 million or more wasn’t based upon outrageously high multiples being paid for Cumulus Media’s prime Beltway tower site; in fact, the buyers, Winchester Homes and Toll Brothers will be dismantling the four 400-foot towers that were erected in the early 1940s. The reported high …
NWSA’s new web site will benchmark alliance’s growth
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) unveiled the organization’s official informational website. NWSA is a national non-profit assessment and certification organization whose mission statement is to provide thorough, independent assessments of knowledge and skills and provide verifiable worker certification in order to enhance safety, reduce workplace risk, improve quality, encourage training, and recognize the skilled professionals who work on towers …
PCIA head calls for improved wireless construction skills training to meet demands of industry
Jonathan Adelstein, the President and CEO of PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association today moderated a White House summit on the urgent need to train U.S. workers for careers in the wireless industry. Adelstein called on leaders from industry, government, and academia to work together in developing a safer, more proficient, and more diverse “wireless workforce of the future” to …
National Wireless Safety Alliance moves forward with NCCCO partnership for certifications
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) and the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) announced today that they have entered into a professional partnership for the development and administration of nationally accredited certification programs. The partnership puts the NWSA a strategically important step closer to rolling out their certification programs for tower technicians expected to be available sometime …
U.S. tower counts and site information are often inaccurate and purposely misleading
Editor’s Note: The following article on the elusive number of towers in the U.S. and the total number of structures that companies state they own was published in Sept. of 2010, and while wireless technology has dramatically changed, tower count accuracy and a desire to embellish statistics hasn’t. And the article is still on target and worth the read. View Top 100 U.S. Tower Companies. Reporters, …
Tower contractor’s owner refutes report that his worker fell from a tower
A Massachusetts contractor said that, although he had a worker who sustained jobsite injuries, his tower technician did not fall from a Crown Castle International tower yesterday in Gorham, Maine, as reported by a Maine newspaper. In a Portland Press Herald article, based upon a police ‘news release,’ an employee of Centerline Communications of Raynham, fell from the 300-foot guyed tower while …
SBA Communications’ ‘improper accounting’ whistleblower act charge is denied by court
A U.S. District Court judge has denied a former SBA Communications employee the right to sue under the Florida Whistleblower Act (FWA) since the alleged request for her to create false assets was not a company policy, but the court will hear her remaining three discrimination complaints filed in Palm Beach County, Fla. On October 7, 2014, former SBA employee …
In lieu of double time pay, New Jersey police have tech spending time in jail
While most industry workers were celebrating July 4th with a well-deserved day off, tower technician Louis Lucas, 45, was one of the few that had to be on duty to service a cell site at 1191 Williamstown Rd., Gloucester Township, N.J. That’s the story he told Gloucester Township Police Corporal M. Pickard, but upon further investigation after Pickard saw Lucas …
Plane crash into a monopine ends with one serious injury and one fatality in California
Update: July 1, 2015 – Authorities have released the name of the pilot who died in a plane crash on Sunday, William Dalo, 55. Dalo had been flying 26-year-old Collette Kenny, a tourist from Ireland, on a sightseeing tour when his plane struck a monopine owned by Crown Castle International. Kenny underwent surgery for knee and shoulder injuries. Following the …
Vertical Bridge tower compound fire warrants a call for crews to be vigilant
Record-breaking drought and dry conditions throughout the U.S. are a deep concern of climatologists, but it’s also causing fire departments to issue earlier than normal burning bans and cautionary messages to prevent fires such as one that recently scorched roughly 1,100 acres in Weiser, Idaho, when cell tower workers accidentally started the wildfire. According to Weiser Rural Fire Chief Nate …
Sheriff’s report: Woman’s death in March was 2015’s first fatality
Although OSHA has not stated whether 28-year-old Stephanie Gurney’s death on March 28, 2015 was industry related when she fell off of an SBA Communications tower near Eden, Tex., a Concho County Sheriffs Office Deputy’s report obtained by Wireless Estimator identifies that the woman was being assessed for her ability to climb by the owner of Jostan Communications for possible …
Sabotage seen as cause for American Tower cell tower collapse in Arizona
A number of TV journalists covering the collapse of a cell tower in Wittmann, Ariz. on Saturday afternoon appeared to display that investigative reporting is not their strong suit A wooden monopole had fallen on high tension power lines causing a power outage that left nearly 2,000 customers without electricity. While Arizona Public Service brought in a crew to remove …
Iconic Sutro tower’s history is provided with suppositions of ’60s backroom politics and collusion
If the legendary Mount Sutro broadcast tower in San Francisco was being proposed today it is unlikely that it would have much of a chance for approval as residents would mobilize in force to let city commissioners know of their concerns through open meetings and social media. But in the 1960s San Francisco had really bad television reception and perhaps …
