Services have been announced for Devon Cornelius Masico Smith, a 35-year-old Tower Tech ll for Midwest Underground Technology, Inc., who passed away August 31, 2019 after succumbing from critical injuries he received when he fell from a 390-foot Kansas City Power & Light-owned guy tower near Warrensburg, Missouri on July 30, 2019. Smith was the seventh wireless infrastructure worker in …
American Tower stock spikes following AT&T lease deal and its Grain 400 tower buy
In a post Labor Day down day on Wall Street with the DOW losing over 340 points at noon, American Tower Corp.’s (ATC) stock was up $6.70 largely based upon an announcement that the towerco has signed a new long-term agreement with AT&T. In a separate statement, Grain Management announced that they have completed the sale of their nationwide wireless …
Three tower techs in Germany die after their man basket failed at 164 feet
Three tower technicians were killed this morning in Germany when the man basket they were working from broke loose from a TV broadcast tower at the 164-foot level, throwing them to their death. According to multiple news reports, they had been working on the mast approximately 18 miles southeast of Kassel in the Hoher Meissner hills when the accident occurred. …
Hurricane Dorian still in a gray area of where it will strike Florida this weekend
It’s still unknown where the potential landfall will be for Hurricane Dorian in Florida, a possible Category 4 major hurricane with wind speeds beginning at 130 mph. For the past two days, projections have changed from it hitting Cape Canaveral to this morning’s 5:00 A.M. NOOA model showing West Palm Beach, approximately 125 miles south, as being in its crosshairs. Early …
T-Mobile cancels 5G upgrades and new builds nationwide, possibly crippling some contractors
Beginning last Friday, contractors started getting calls from T-Mobile’s market managers informing them that most purchase orders they had for new builds and 5G upgrades were going to be put on hold until 2020 unless materials for the project were sitting in a warehouse. The news came as a shock to many wireless contracting companies that had been counting on …
Color privilege, gen sets, graffiti used as ploys to deny 5G deployments: WIA
The Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clarify its rules to facilitate broadband deployment by promoting collocations on existing wireless facilities. As part of its request, WIA has asked the FCC to rectify an unnecessary barrier to broadband deployment due to the divergent treatment of compound expansions around wireless facilities. These petitions are based on the FCC’s explicit authority …
In America’s most barren broadband district, Congressman Mullin tours an ATC tower site
On Monday, U.S. Congressman Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) conducted a site visit to a communications tower located in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The tour was facilitated by representatives from the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE), the Association’s Wireless Industry Network (WIN) and American Tower Corporation. The site visit was held at an American Tower-owned self-supporting cell tower site that is located in …
With a likely fine on the horizon, AT&T reaches a truce in an FTC data throttling lawsuit
AT&T has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a 2014 lawsuit that alleged the wireless carrier of deceiving its unlimited-data subscribers when it slowed their connection speeds, according to a court filing Friday. The parties requested a 90-day stay so the FTC could finalize the proposed settlement, the value of which wasn’t disclosed. The FTC sued …
South Dakota picks up monumental $705.5 million in FCC’s $5 Billion rural broadband funding
Taking further steps to close the digital divide, the FCC has authorized over $4.9 billion in support over the next decade for maintaining, improving, and expanding affordable rural broadband for 455,334 homes and businesses served by 171 carriers in 39 states and American Samoa, including 44,243 locations on Tribal lands. South Dakota was the largest beneficiary at $ $705.5 million. …
FCC is clueless on how many people don’t have broadband leads Fast-Forward Friday
FCC LIKELY COUNTS MILLIONS OF UNSERVED HOMES AS HAVING BROADBAND A new broadband mapping system is starting to show just how inaccurate the Federal Communications Commission’s connectivity data is. Research indicates that it’s likely that millions of homes nationwide have been wrongly counted as being served by broadband. Ars TECHNICA has the full details. Article Media Partnerships with cities lead …
El Paso border crossing signal crisis has Verizon reaching out to the FCC for a resolution
Verizon would like to tell a Mexican cell carrier’s signals to go back to where they came from in order to fix their spotty service in El Paso that they are blaming on new cell sites that have been activated in and around Juárez. Verizon acknowledged this week that after the Mexican carrier turned on new cell sites near the …
Following FCC’s scathing outage report, CenturyLink might be bracing for a serious fine
The FCC has released a scathing report detailing the cause and impact of a nationwide CenturyLink network outage that occurred late last year, along with recommendations to help prevent similar outages from occurring in the future. It could be a prelude to a serious fine, especially considering that in 2015, CenturyLink was zapped with a $16 million fine from the …
Mobilitie looks to foreign investment fund to fuel 5G wireless deployment – gets $1 Billion
Mobilitie has announced a $1B exclusive arrangement with an unnamed foreign investment fund to fuel the next five years of growth around 5G infrastructure. The partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for the company to speed both U.S. and international 5G growth and expansion and bring unprecedented connectivity to consumers. Christos Karmis, President and CEO of Mobilitie, stated, “We’re excited about the opportunity …
Contractor didn’t anticipate dress rehearsal for monopole pour and erection, leads Fast Forward Friday
THE SECOND TIME AROUND WILL BE TO CHARM THE BUILDING INSPECTOR For unknown reasons, a tower erector in Arkansas didn’t call for inspections when they poured the foundation and erected a 150-foot monopole. They didn’t have a third-party inspection and will be accorded a second opportunity to rip out and re-pour the base and re-erect the white stealth flagpole tower …
Sixth 2019 tower tech death was kept quiet for over six weeks
After six weeks of investigating leads, Wireless Estimator has confirmed that an 18-year-old tower technician working on an AT&T installation project fell from a New Jersey monopole and died upon impact. The New York resident’s death had not been reported in local, social or industry media and most likely would have been kept private by the worker’s company and the …
Tower techs and families are major benefactors of T-Mobile’s 6th annual golf tournament
T-Mobile hosted its 6th Annual Invitational Golf Tournament on Wednesday, July 24 in Newcastle, Washington. At the event, T-Mobile and the event’s 41 industry sponsors continued their generous track record by presenting $235,000 directly to the Tower Family Foundation (TFF). Funds totaling upward of $1 million have now been distributed to TFF and Warriors4Wireless through the tournament’s five years of …
FCC chief formally recommends approval of the T-Mobile/Sprint marriage
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai today shared a draft Order that would approve, subject to conditions, the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. “After one of the most exhaustive merger reviews in Commission history, the evidence conclusively demonstrates that this transaction will bring fast 5G wireless service to many more Americans and help close the digital divide in rural …
Auto-racing icon Kyle Petty to deliver keynote address at NATE UNITE 2020
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) announced today that Kyle Petty will deliver the keynote address at the NATE UNITE 2020 Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. NATE UNITE 2020 will take place February 17-20, 2020 at the Raleigh Convention Center. NATE UNITE is widely regarded as the premier and most comprehensive education event in the wireless and broadcast infrastructure …
Insurer must provide bankrupt Monarch Towers and its owner coverage following two tech deaths
A Florida federal judge on Friday ruled that a tower erector’s insurance company doesn’t have to represent and indemnify Sarasota, Florida-based Broadcast Tower Technologies in a lawsuit following a July 8, 2013 accident in New Town, North Dakota that resulted in the death of two tower techs, but it does have to represent the contractor’s bankrupt company and its owner. …
Florida firefighters rescue an injured tech hanging from a self-supporting tower
A tower tech was rescued by firefighters this morning about 9 a.m. after he fainted and received head injuries, according to the News Press, as he climbed down from a self-supporting communications tower in the rear of Premiere International College on Central Avenue in downtown Ft. Myers, Florida. According to Fort Myers Deputy Fire Chief Tracy McMillion, the tech had been …
