With a Philadelphia, Pa. jury trial scheduled to begin today to determine whether AT&T and other defendants were negligent and contributed to a tower technician falling 50 feet to the ground and causing him to sustain severe and permanent injuries, the carrier agreed to a $30 million settlement, the largest recorded payment in the U.S. to an injured wireless infrastructure worker, …
SBA’s Ciarfella joins National Wireless Safety Alliance Board of Directors
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) announced today that Mark Ciarfella, Executive Vice President – U.S. Operations at SBA Communications Corporation, has been appointed to serve on the organization’s Board of Directors. The NWSA leadership made the announcement from the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s 2018 Connectivity Expo which is taking place this week in Charlotte, N.C. The NWSA, headquartered in Fairfax, …
FCC’s 2020 repack deadline is questionable following first year’s bleak build
After assessing the progress of the first 12 months of the broadband repack, and the immense pressure put upon the small cadre of contractors that specialize in tall tower broadcast work, the NAB is again championing the need for the FCC to address what the trade group and tower companies believe is an “unrealistic schedule” and the organization is urging …
PerfectVision and Trylon team up to ensure successful wireless rollouts
PerfectVision Manufacturing, a leading manufacturer of satellite, broadband, and wireless products, and Trylon, an end-to-end wireless infrastructure developer and tower manufacturer, have entered into a partnership agreement for a long-term joint manufacturing and distribution relationship to support the growing demands of the industry. The alliance will drive continued improvement in the quality and cost of products in the wireless marketplace by aligning …
FCC Commissioner Carr gets an enlightening Cook’s tour of tower site work
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr today conducted a site visit to a communications tower located in Noblesville, Ind. The tour was facilitated by representatives from NATE, Crown Castle and Heartland Solutions Corporation. During his time spent on site, Carr visited with technicians and staff from NATE member companies Heartland Solutions and Crown Castle to discuss the work that is conducted on …
Crown Castle monopole destroyed in early morning Philly fire
Crown Castle is investigating the circumstances that caused a multi-tenant monopole to catch fire early this morning in Philadelphia. Firefighters were called to the cell site kocated just of the Schuylkill Expressway between Montgomery Dr. and Roosevelt Blvd. at about 5:15 a.m. after numerous drivers called in the fire that had swept through the center of the pole, igniting transmission …
Bet on the Sprint/T-Mobile mega merger wounding towercos
If the proposed T-Mobile and Sprint merger announced Sunday is approved by federal regulators, both companies said that they expect the marriage creating the nation’s second largest carrier would be sometime in July 2019. However, it’s been identified by the carriers that fully combining the companies is another three to four years, possibly longer. Displaying their lack of fundamental industry …
T-Mobile and Sprint agree to merge creating severe competition for rival AT&T
After years of negotiations, T-Mobile and Sprint announced today that they have finally agreed to tie the knot and will merge in an all-stock transaction of 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile US share. Based upon Friday’s closing share prices this represents a value of approximately $59 billion for Sprint and approximately $146 billion for the combined company. The new company will …
India tower deal drops American Tower to the world’s third largest towerco
India’s Bharti Infratel Ltd has agreed to merge with Indus Towers, in a deal that creates the world’s second largest telecom tower company, a title that American Tower formerly held. The new company with more than 163,000 towers has an estimated equity value of $14.6 billion Indus Towers’s tower total lags considerably behind the world’s largest tower owner, China Tower …
AT&T’s CitySwitch agreement is a clear unveiling of their current tower leasing concerns
In a shot over the bow of the major tower owners signaling that they’re not pleased with their current leasing models and are looking for alternatives, AT&T announced today that the carrier and CitySwitch signed an agreement for building new cell towers to-suit based on future wireless network needs. CitySwitch will begin tower construction plans as early as the second …
Erector’s owner identified as the deceased worker in horrific Missouri tower collapse
Steve Lemay, 56, of Washington state, the owner of Steve Lemay LLC, has been identified by authorities as the erector who died yesterday morning when an 1,892-foot TV tower in Webster County, Mo. collapsed while his crew was performing structural upgrades in order for Ozarks Public Television KOZK to comply with their FCC repack requirement to move from channel 23 to …
Tech is killed after 1,892-foot tower collapses while being repack retrofitted
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, …
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 …
Puerto Rico death is second industry tower tech fatality in April
A 28-year-old tower technician died Saturday after he was electrocuted while working on an AT&T LTE installation in Puerto Rico. According to sources knowledgeable of the incident, Josean Matos Rodriquez, employed by FM Technology Group of Dallas, Tex., was working on a residential rooftop when he came into contact with a 13kv power line. Authorities said the incident occurred at 10:50 …
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 …
WIA’s Adelstein honored for wireless training and industry education work
Jonathan Adelstein, President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), was honored today at the Wireless Connect conference held at the University of Maryland for his work to enhance training and education opportunities within the wireless infrastructure industry. Dr. Rikin Thakker, Faculty Member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and …
Canada’s premier tower industry event is all set for April 17 and 18
Canada’s Structure, Tower & Antenna Council (STAC) will host its 3rd annual conference April 17 and 18, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Calgary in Alberta. From its location in the Stampede City, the STAC 2018 Conference & Exhibition will feature two full days of discussion and presentations by industry leading thinkers on the most important issues in the Canadian tower …
Services set for Alabama tower tech, the nation’s first 2018 fatality
Services have been set for Melvin Ronnie Nelson, Jr., 34, a resident of Foley, Ala., who passed away Mon., April 2, while working on a new Verizon tower installation in Utica, Miss. Nelson was the first industry-related fatality in 2018. According to Hinds County Sheriff Major Pete Luke, “The tower was being erected just off Hwy. 27 near Bear Creek …
Outside engineer’s defective gin pole rigging plan is cited for three tower techs’ deaths
Calculation errors in an engineer’s rigging plan is being cited as the reason a gin pole broke loose from the 1,000-foot Miami, Fla. tower it was attached to, causing the death last September of three tall tower technicians employed by Tower King II, Inc. of Cedar Hill, Tex. The disclosure came to light this afternoon from Tower King II’s attorney, …
