By Michael O’Rielly – FCC Commissioner Having worked on numerous legislative efforts over the years, I have seen that it is not uncommon for very well-intentioned provisions contained within larger bills passed by Congress and enacted into law to lead to unintended negative consequences. One such provision recently enacted in an FAA Authorization statute is causing a considerable level of …
Broadcast repack video is truly a must see for all tower techs
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) released a Broadcast Repack safety video during the NATE UNITE 2017 Keynote Luncheon sponsored by T-Mobile. The timely video is the second to debut as part of Volume 2 of the NATE Climber Connection series and coincides with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently concluding the bidding phase of its historic incentive auction, …
Black & Veatch exec Martin Travers joins National Wireless Safety Alliance’s Board
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) has announced that Martin Travers, Group President of Black & Veatch, has joined the organization’s Board of Directors. Travers was nominated and formally appointed to serve in this leadership role during the NWSA Board of Directors meeting held in Fort Worth, Tex. on March 2, 2017. NWSA, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, is a national non-profit …
Broadcaster taunts American Tower who could easily pull the plug on its stations
UPDATE: March 10, 2017 – A Jackson Hole, Wyo. Broadcaster most likely doesn’t agree with the cautionary idiom of not biting the hand that feeds you. Radio stations KMTN, KZ95, KJAX and KID broadcast from American Tower’s towers and the stations’ owner was given until March 8 to either pay ATC over $500,000 it owed in back lease payments or negotiate a …
Rappelling tower tech may be disqualified from receiving workers compensation
The Supreme Court of Georgia has ruled that a tower tech who disobeyed his supervisor’s instructions not to use a controlled descent and fell, severely injuring himself, may not be entitled to workers compensation benefits, reversing a Georgia Court of Appeals decision. Tower technician Adrian Burdette, employed by Chandler Telecom L.L.C. of Eatonton, Ga. during November 2012, according to the ruling, …
HR folks focused on Verizon’s employee handbook court ruling challenge
There were a number of lessons learned by wireless infrastructure companies last month when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that portions of Verizon Wireless employees’ handbook needed to be removed because they had the potential to suppress workers from not being allowed protected free speech. The NLRB, in its Feb. 24 decision and order, said that Verizon must …
NATE sets new all-time attendee, exhibitor marks at 2017’s conference
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) announced today that last week’s NATE UNITE 2017 Conference in Fort Worth, Tex, set new attendee and exhibitor records. The Association said that 1,801 individuals registered to attend NATE UNITE 2017. This total eclipses the organization’s all-time conference registered attendee total in its 22-year history, exceeding the previous attendance registration record of 1,614 at …
No barriers in the way of the un-carrier’s drive to support tower techs/veterans
All carriers and tower owners support the need for a safe environment for tower techs, but T-Mobile has unfailingly gone the extra mile in its deeds and donations. The un-carrier, consistently ranked for having the nation’s fastest 4G LTE network speeds for its 72-million-plus subscribers, has quickly and deservedly captured a reputation for having the greatest concern for the safety of …
AT&T’s FirstNet award in the bag rumors ignore court’s near-term expected ruling
Rumors at last week’s Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona that FirstNet was set to award America’s first nationwide network for first responders to AT&T would require judicial clairvoyance to be accurate since the award is in an ongoing procurement process that will be decided by U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Elaine Kaplan. Oral arguments in Rivada Mercury’s lawsuit …
Lone Survivor hero wows hundreds of NATE attendees with harrowing survival tale
Decorated retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell paced back and forth in front of almost 900 attendees at NATE UNITE 2017’s keynote address yesterday, effortlessly herding them from the Fort Worth, Tex. convention center to a Hindu Kush mountain top in Afghanistan in 2005 surrounded by Taliban fighters who killed Luttrell’s three team members. But through his courage, training, and …
NWSA lauds America’s first trailblazing telecommunications tower technicians
Workers successfully complete assessments; recognized with professional NWSA Certification The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) announced the names of individuals who are among the first workers to obtain NWSA Telecommunications Tower Technician (TTT) certification at an educational session that was held Tuesday in conjunction with the NATE UNITE 2017 Conference in Fort Worth, Tex. The following industry workers have obtained …
Snyder, Vermillion and Wilder honored at NATE UNITE 2017 awards luncheon
Collins, Hightower and Miller Receive Prestigious Chairman’s Coin The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) honored Craig Snyder, President of Sioux Falls Tower & Communications, Inc., Jocko Vermillion, Vice-President of Safety Management Services for CITCA and Steve Wilder, Co-Owner and Founding Member of CITCA, during the Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, February 28 at NATE UNITE 2017 in Fort Worth, Tex. …
Executives Tracy, Miller and Little elected to lead NATE in 2017
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) announced today that Board of Directors’ members Jim Tracy, Jim Miller and Ben Little were elected to serve on the Association’s Executive Committee for the upcoming year. The Association made the announcement on the first day of the NATE UNITE 2017 Conference and Exposition in Fort Worth, Tex. Jim Tracy, CEO of …
Texas space program post says student was never in danger while climbing tower
A representative of the Eldorado Space Program, an Eldorado, Tex. high school program that teaches students to design instrumentation packages and launch them into space, said on its Facebook page Saturday that a cover story photograph in the March edition of QST published by the National Association for Amateur Radio, represented an inaccurate, unsafe depiction of a student climbing a …
Cover girl climber shot could send high schoolers to their death
Commentary – The March issue of a well-respected magazine published by The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) will most likely latch onto the literal lunacy award for depicting in a photograph the most egregious tie-off violations one could imagine. In QST’s latest edition, their antenna issue, the cover shows a picture of Chase Mertz of Eldorado, Tex. climbing a …
Kansas mayor is perplexed why FCC chief singled out his city’s broadband
During a press conference yesterday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai singled out a small Kansas community that he said had 75 residents that could possibly receive economic prosperity if they were to be provided with adequate broadband services, but City of Allen Mayor Charles Eastman said he’s not quite sure as to how that would be achieved – or if the city …
Wireless infrastructure movers and shakers to converge in Fort Worth
NATE UNITE 2017, the National Association of Tower Erectors’ annual conference, to be held Feb. 27 through March 2 in Fort Worth, Tex., is expected to rival a record-setting number of visitors to the event that is clearly regarded as the largest and most comprehensive show in the U.S. for the wireless infrastructure industry. The exhibition is already breaking last …
Industry’s first successful flying COW live test is made by AT&T
By Art Pregler It’s a bird, it’s a plane… it’s a Flying COW. Despite its funny name, we expect our Flying COW will be doing serious, potentially life-saving things for our customers. We’ve used drones to inspect cell sites, measure network strength in sports stadiums, and now we’ve built a Flying COW. A Flying COW – which stands for Cell …
SoftBank spectrum bids and a T-Mobile/Sprint buy are based on suspect sources
SoftBank Group, Inc., Sprint’s parent company, may revive selling the carrier to T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters. The news agency said that SoftBank is reportedly frustrated with Sprint’s growth and is ready to give up control of the company and take a minority interest in T-Mobile. With limited information provided by Reuters’ sources, …
DAS debuts at University of Iowa as ATC’s lawsuit still dawdles in court
U.S. Cellular announced on Wednesday that it has completed its DAS network at the University of Iowa Carver-Hawkeye Arena and Kinnick Stadium, much to the chagrin of American Tower Corp. (ATC) who is suing the university and its Board of Regents after they yanked a 2013 contract that ATC says is still in effect. “The new network system supports a …
