UPDATE: April 20, 2018 – The deceased has been identified by authorities to be Steven Lemay, the owner of the erection company that was performing structural upgrades. April 19, 2018 – An 1,892-foot TV tower in Webster County, Mo. collapsed this morning just before 10 a.m., killing a tall tower worker and injuring at at least five others with non-life-threatening injuries, …
Climber safety and net neutrality FCC Commissioner provides an unexpected adios
Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn made a surprise announcement yesterday at the FCC’s open meeting– she’s resigning after serving a nine-year tenure at the agency. A fierce advocate of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, Clyburn has been at odds with Chairman Ajit Pai frequently. “I have enjoyed working with her and, even when we have not seen eye-to-eye on policy, I …
Feds charge FCC chairman’s advisory head Elizabeth Pierce with a $250 million fraud scheme
When Quintillion Subsea 0perations, LLC CEO Elizabeth Ann Pierce ran her first meeting of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) on April 21, 2017 as its newly appointed chairman, she echoed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s message that it would be a priority of BDAC to remove regulatory barriers. She also knew, if the Department of Justice’s allegations are true, that …
Sprint and T-Mobile might believe the third time will be a charm
Sprint Corp has resumed talks to merge with T-Mobile US, according to Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets who quoted unnamed sources. The third and fourth largest U.S. wireless carriers, with a combined subscriber base of almost 130 million customers, reportedly restarted talks, in part, to reduce operating network costs as well as share expansion costs. Shares …
FCC whacks Sprint & Mobilitie with a $11.6 million fine for non-compliant small cell installs
The Federal Communications Commission today announced settlements with Sprint and Mobilitie in two separate but related investigations into whether the companies completed proper tower registration as well as environmental and historic impact reviews prior to construction of wireless infrastructure facilities. The investigation was most likely initiated last April after Event Driven identified that Sprint appeared to have been complicit in providing …
It’s unlikely that company that stole 42 towers on paper will pay a $236K FCC fine
The FCC has proposed a penalty of $235,668 against Aura Holdings of Wisconsin, Inc. for the willful and repeated failure to provide truthful and accurate information to the Commission in submitting false and misleading information in 10 different change in ownership applications on the FCC’s antenna structure registration (ASR) website. Last June, Wireless Estimator broke the story of the FCC …
Organizations applaud new rules that curb 5G ‘cash cow’ reviews
The FCC helped clear the way for wireless providers to deploy hundreds of thousands of small antennas for use in 5G services by easing historic and environmental reviews before equipment is installed, and limiting American Indian tribes’ authority over the installations. In a 3-to-2 Republican-led vote for its Wireless Infrastructure Streamlining Report and Order, the FCC said that installing the …
AT&T’s small cell ‘rat’s nest’ of cables is needlessly messy says former FCC senior exec
Dr. Michael Marcus, a former forceful proponent of new technology at the FCC for 20 years, who is recognized for getting the FCC to adopt rules for the 60 GHz mmWave bands in 1995, has taken AT&T to task for using a photograph of a small cell in Indianapolis in a Feb. 23 presentation to the FCC that he believes …
Sprint wants to put an end to tribal fees costing 24% of a small cell’s installation cost
In a short letter to the FCC with four photographs , Sprint has easily identified the outdated review processes that have become a significant barrier to 5G deployment with small cells. According to Sprint Senior Counsel Keith C. Buell, the tribal review process that is part of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) allows fees to be levied against Sprint …
NRA awards FCC chief Pai a long gun for his ‘courage’ to kill net neutrality
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a passionate and polished speaker. But on Friday he was flummoxed when he was about to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland when the American Conservative Union (ACU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) presented him with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire” award, an honor that is given with the …
SpaceX gets important nod for its internet satellite system launch
SpaceX’s planned internet satellite system received an approval from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday who asked his agency to greenlight the application. In a press release about his decision, Pai said, “To bridge America’s digital divide, we’ll have to use innovative technologies. SpaceX’s application—along with those of other satellite companies seeking licenses or access to the U.S. …
FCC Inspector General to investigate the agency and its chief says NYT
Two members of the US House of Representatives have sent a formal letter to the Federal Communications Commission Inspector General calling for an investigation of Chairman Ajit Pai, questioning whether Pai and others at the FCC have used personal messaging channels and private emails to communicate with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, a violation of the Federal Records Act and the Freedom …
Spectrum scammer, firms ordered to repay $14 million in illegal payments and fines
A Florida man and several companies he managed will have to pay more than $14 million in repayment of ill-gotten gains and civil penalties after a federal judge sided with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on allegations that they participated in a fraud scheme involving applications to the Federal Communications Commission for cellular spectrum licenses. U.S. District Judge …
New broadcast stations’ 2017 count shaved in half following FCC’s reverse auction
According to newly released statistics by the FCC, the nation saw an addition of 609 broadcast stations added to its ranks during 2017, with 158 of them being low power FM stations. However, the repack auction has taken its toll. In 2016, an additional 1,365 stations were added, 55% more new broadcasters than in 2017. (VIEW BROADCAST CATEGORY COUNTS BELOW) The year saw the continuing …
Top 10 industry stories in 2017 trailed with one fake news article
Below are the top 10 articles that appeared in Wireless Estimator during 2017 based upon the number of views each one received, such as the September rigging accident that claimed the lives of three industry workers. It had 6,000 Facebook likes, was shared on LinkedIn over 900 times, and had been viewed over 48,000 times With Wireless Estimator’s safety-centric audience …
FCC gets serious about putting 4,200 ‘twilight towers’ in the spotlight
The National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) and the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) applauded the FCC’s significant vote to seek public comment on a plan to exclude from routine historic preservation review the collocation of wireless communications equipment on “twilight towers”. It has been estimated by the FCC that those structures total more than 4,200 nationwide. The affirmative vote from …
FCC’s fidget spinning Pai gets enough party-line votes to kill net-neutrality
In a move that will reshape the internet and incubate consumer-advocacy and other opponents’ lawsuits, the Federal Communications Commission this afternoon repealed the net neutrality rules it put in place in 2015. In the 3-2 expected party-line vote, with Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn dissenting, the FCC reversed the designation of broadband providers as telecommunications companies and does away …
CTIA: Wireless networks should be communications platform for drones
CTIA, the wireless association, today called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to recognize that commercial wireless networks offer the best communications platform to support America’s fast-growing drone market. CTIA and the wireless industry are working with policymakers to boost investment, innovation and jobs by creating a national framework for FAA management of U.S. drone airspace. CTIA’s call comes as …
AT&T and Verizon threaten the big three towercos with a new Tillman 200 tower scheme
In a move clearly positioned as a threat to major tower owners to lower their lease rates, AT&T, Verizon and Tillman Infrastructure announced a joint agreement today to build hundreds of cell towers, with the potential for significantly more new site locations in the future. Last year during an investors conference, Bill Hogg, AT&T’s president of technology operations, said that …
FCC gives Project Loon a kickstart to keep Puerto Ricans communicating
Google received approval to deploy an experimental balloon-based web service to restore cell reception to Puerto Ricans still struggling after Hurricane Maria devastated the island’s cell service. Today, 81 percent of Puerto Rico’s cell sites were out of service, almost no change from yesterday. The FCC said Saturday that it granted an “experimental license” for Alphabet Inc.’s (Google’s parent company) …
