Although conversations at a Florida Wireless Association networking social of over 200 attendees last night ranged from carrier cap ex expenditures to planned business expansions of a number of key players, one frequent topic was Sarasota Fla.-based Grain Management’s purchase this week of 103 nTelos Wireless’ cell towers for $41 million. However, opinions differed regarding whether the $398,000 per-tower-deal made …
NATE issues update on the National Wireless Skills-Based Training Standard
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) today provided a progress update on the Wireless Industry Safety Task Force’s National Wireless Skills-Based Training Standard that is currently under development. The Task Force’s Skills-Based Training Subcommittee has completed development of a Skills-Based Training standard that outlines the minimum competencies and skills required for five foundational categories of workers in the industry: …
Almost 1,000 Crown Castle antennas will support Super Bowl network needs
Crown Castle pulled back the curtain Tuesday on its $32 million-plus distributed antenna systems in Glendale, Ariz. just in time for Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1, 2015 at the University of Phoenix stadium. The state of the art network includes the stadium and Gila River Arena as well as the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa, and throughout the Glendale …
RF could have been the real killer of a BASE jumper who fell to his death
Although it will not be able to be identified until a coroner examines tissue samples, there’s a strong possibility that a Michigan BASE jumper might have died, not because his parachute’s canopy didn’t open, but because he might have been unconscious before he ever had the opportunity to pull his ripcord as he fell from the 1,000-foot WLAJ-TV tower he …
Anritsu’s field analyzer with integrated PIM and line testing is an industry first
Anritsu Company is breaking new ground in field wireless testing with the introduction of the MW82119B PIM Master™, which combines a 40W, battery-operated PIM analyzer with a 2 MHz to 3 GHz cable and antenna analyzer, eliminating the need to carry multiple instruments to measure the RF performance of a cell site. The MW82119B provides tower and maintenance contractors, network installers, …
PCIA chief to sit on TIRAP’s Board and assist with setting job positions /skills
PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association President and CEO Jonathan Adelstein has been selected by the U.S. Department of Labor-credentialed Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) to replace board member Jonathan Campbell, PCIA’s former Director of Government Affairs who left PCIA last Friday to take a position with the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. “PCIA has the expertise and resources to …
Michigan tower BASE jumper is killed after chute doesn’t deploy
A well-known and highly skilled skydiver plunged to his death off a television tower yesterday when his canopy failed to open during a jump. Authorities say that Josh Sheppard, 31, was found dead at the bottom of the 1,000-foot WLAJ-TV tower in Jackson County west of Detroit, Mich. at 5:30 p.m. Sheppard, who was from the Detroit suburb of Southfield, was …
CTIA castigates Obama for his drive for more government-owned networks
Although President Obama didn’t lock arms with heads of states in France on Sunday in a unity march, today he locked private versus public sector horns with CTIA’s President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker after he said he will ask the Federal Communications Commission to assist in repealing laws in 19 states that prevent local governments from creating municipal internet …
Five years later, SCOTUS settles T-Mobile’s siting dispute with Georgia city
The United States Supreme Court gave a wake-up call to municipalities today as to how government agencies must inform wireless carriers, tower owners and the siting community at large when they reject a tower construction request. In its 6-3 ruling the Justices said that local governments like Roswell, Ga., that is at the center of the case must provide a …
Blue Book’s popularity surges with over 54,000 ad views in just three months
The nation’s largest and most effective buyer’s guide, Wireless Estimator’s Blue Book, hit a record number of ads viewed since its October launch of over 54,000 as of Jan. 8, 2015. The popular resource lists over 1,100 wireless contractors employing elevated workers, the most accurate listing ever available to the industry for networking and sales opportunities. The Blue Book also …
PCIA eyeing every opportunity to expand its niche in wireless safety/training
Update – 1.12. 2015, 12:20 p.m. – Jonathan Campbell, who is listed on TIRAP’s web site as one of or the organization’s executive board members and PCIA’s Director of Government Affairs, left PCIA on Friday to take a position with the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. It is not known if PCIA will be asked to fill his position with another association …
Nine front flips off of a broadcast tower is newest foolish YouTube entry
Whereas last week’s video of a tower technician climbing 1,500-feet to relamp a guyed tower almost served as a tutorial for safe 100% tie-off practices, a video uploaded Friday of a BASE jumper doing nine front flips on the way down personified that if brains were dynamite some folks wouldn’t have enough to blow their Go-Pro helmet off their head. …
Cold snap guide offered as Artic air blast brings bone-chilling temperatures
If tower techs from JMA Wireless of Liverpool, N.Y. were going to be heading north to Watertown yesterday, chances are they were praying that it would be one of their in-building wireless projects and not a bone-chilling outdoor installation where the temperature hit a national low of -30.1 °F. The waves of Arctic air coming in this week have been …
B+T Group brings aboard Largent and Gladstone’s capital to further growth
B+T Group, a leading full-service engineering, construction and technical services firm specializing in the wireless industry, has announced that Steve Largent will serve as Chairman of the Board following an investment from Gladstone Investment Corporation and its affiliate Gladstone Capital Corporation . “This is a great move for our company,” said CEO and founder, Chad Tuttle. “We’ve experienced tremendous growth …
Long-awaited FCC streamlined wireless facilities siting rules finally published
The Federal Communications Commission provided wireless siting professionals with a post-holiday present today: the final rules for acceleration of broadband deployment by improving wireless facilities siting policies. But its ultimate impact upon municipalities and siting professionals may not be known for weeks to come as interested parties scour each word in the 121-page document that has changed some of the FCC’s …
South Dakota tower tech’s climb to 1,500 feet heads north of a million views
YouTube is littered with many hundreds of climbers that are captured as they ascend a tower. Oftentimes their videographers weep at view counts struggling to break double digits. But a mundane drone-shot bulb replacement video in South Dakota recently went viral, and it’s expected to surpass over one million views this week. Filmed in September, eight-year industry worker Kevin Schmidt …
ComTrain sets a two-year expiration date on its new certifications
In an effort to prevent fraud and require mandatory tower climber retraining, ComTrain, one of the industry’s largest tower training companies, has announced that its new certification cards will expire after two years following their issue. In addition, all new cards will have the holder’s photo to further authenticate it. According to ComTrain President Zane Windham, after conducting surveys at …
New York State Troopers ticket technicians for taking an illegal smoke break
Two tower technicians responding to a T-Mobile trouble ticket in Upstate New York ended up with a ticket of their own from Wappinger, N.Y. State Troopers on Tuesday for unlawful possession of marijuana. Authorities say a rental truck drove through the rear parking lot of the barracks in the Dutchess County town of Wappinger around 8 a.m. As the truck …
South Carolina technician, 44, is 10th industry worker to die this year
UPDATE: Authorities have identified the tower technician who fell approximately 100 feet from a cell tower in Greeneville, Tenn. yesterday as 44-year-old Allen Lee Cotton of Sumter, S.C. Two of his co-workers from Central USA Wireless did not see him fall, according to Greeneville Police Officer Shawn Hinkle’s report which provided information regarding the 12:25 p.m. incident. “Mr. Cotton was …
