Bahama Telephone Company (BTC) and new entrant Aliv are sparing no effort to restore service to their networks after Dorian, a category 5 Hurricane that had gusts of 200 mph devastated many parts of the Bahamas. As of this afternoon the death toll has reached 50. BTC’s cell services in many areas of Abaco, Grand Bahama, Berry Islands and Bimini …
Canadian climber succumbs from injuries received in an August 16 fall
Services were held Tuesday for a 22-year-old tower tech, Maxime Asselin, who passed away on August 26, 2019 after suffering serious injuries from a fall off of a monopole in Candiac, Quebec on August 16, 2019. Asselin is survived by his wife Elodie Julien, his parents Josée Langelier and Marco Asselin, his brothers and their spouses Jean-François Asselin (Cindy), Francis …
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 …
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 …
As Apollo courts Tegna, InSite takes on role of managing Tegna’s towers
Last week, InSite Wireless Group, one of the largest privately-owned tower and wireless infrastructure companies in the U.S., announced the expansion of its broadcast tower portfolio by entering into a management agreement with Tegna Inc., a TV broadcast group, to provide operational support as well as marketing services for Tegna’s wholly owned broadcast towers. However, at the time, it’s not known if …
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 …
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 …
FCC concludes that 5G RF exposure is safe in America
The FCC has restated its conviction that 5G does not pose a health risk in America and it will not change its existing RF exposure limits, emphasizing that such limits are already among the safest in the world. “The available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects in humans due to exposures at or under the current …
Vodafone to create Europe’s largest tower owner with potential for IPO
Vodafone Group is spinning off its European tower business into a separate company named TowerCo, which will provide 61,700 towers in 10 countries, with the majority of its sites in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The company said today that its likely it will price TowerCo for an IPO within the next 18 months. Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone, …
AT&T’s remaining US towers and those in Mexico are on the chopping block
In its second quarter earnings conference call today, AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens confirmed that the carrier is looking to sell its remaining cell towers in the U.S as well as those in Mexico. In discussing asset sales, Stephens said, “I think that it’s public knowledge that we’re out there selling our collections of about 1,300 U.S. cell towers that …
Novel ‘shenanigans’ concern cited in FCC’s $25,000 lighting/marking fine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania gospel radio station WGBN-AM’s owner was notified yesterday that they were to be fined $25,000 for presenting a public safety risk to passing aircraft for failing to properly light two antenna structures 206-feet in height and failing to notify the FAA of lights being out on the towers and not painting them to meet visibility requirements. The FCC …
Wisconsin residents can’t return to their homes until tower’s structural integrity is assessed
Police in Bloomer, Wisconsin evacuated residents of eight homes on Thursday evening after authorities became concerned that a nearby tower could collapse, causing injury to those living in the immediate area. It may still be another day or so until they are able to return. The 499-foot guyed tower, owned by InSite Towers LLC of Virginia, was constructed in 1969. InSite acquired …
BACOM updates information on deceased California tech who fell in Nevada
To clarify the misinformation that has appeared on social and other media regarding a recent industry fatality, Broken Arrow Communications, Inc.’s (BACOM) President, Dan Filler, has provided a statement to Wireless Estimator: “On July 11, 2019, Joel Miller, a Broken Arrow Communications, Inc. employee lost his life following a fall from a tower near Sparks, Nevada. “Joel was a father …
Strawberry fields not quite forever for Sprint as it caves in in California
The City of Ripon, California’s City Council agreed yesterday to move forward with an agreement with Sprint (below) to allow the carrier to replace an existing cell tower at the Weston Elementary School with one to be built on acreage with strawberry fields approximately three-quarters of a mile north of the school. Bowing to pressure in April, Sprint turned off …
FCC’s short-lived Tropical Storm Barry reporting has long-awaited changes
The FCC deactivated its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for Tropical Storm Barry yesterday, issuing it’s final report as of 11:30 a.m. showing that only 25 cell sites were out in Louisiana out of a total of 3,075. Mississippi had no sites out in the affected counties that represented 1,284 sites. Reporting began on Friday. Of interest were the new …
California tower foreman passes in Nevada after falling off a 253-foot tower
OSHA is investigating the industry’s fifth tower climber fatality in 2019 after a Pittsburg, California man fell from a Nevada self-supporting tower on Thursday, July 11. Wireless Estimator has confirmed that Joel Joaquin Miller, age 41, passed away when he fell from an American Tower 253-foot self-supporting tower in Patrick, Nevada, east of Interstate 80. Miller, a seasoned tower climber, …
Anatomy of a triple fatality citation: Judge rules OSHA didn’t understand industry standards
An OSHA Review Commission Judge has vacated a proposed $12,934 OSHA penalty against tall tower erection firm Tower King ll, Inc. of Cedar Hill, Texas that was issued following a tragic accident on Sept. 27, 2017 when a gin pole broke loose from a 958-foot WSVN TV tower in Miami Gardens, Florida after its bridle slings failed, killing three erectors, one of whom was the …
Monopole manufacturer or installer can’t be too proud of their shroud that hit vehicle
When driving on a highway it’s normal to keep an eye on the road to ensure that you don’t run over construction debris, especially in Orlando, Florida along I-4 as it undergoes a 21-mile facelift in a multi-year transformation project. However, an I-4 motorist on July 1 could not have anticipated cell tower rubble raining down on their car as …
