Cell Tower and Fiber Cable to WWS Community Project 2014

BACKGROUND:

In March of 2014 a small team of community volunteers were given permission by the WWS BOD to proceed with looking into the possibility of getting high speed fiber cable and local cell tower coverage within the WWS Community.

PROBLEMS TO BE ADDRESSED:

1. Poor cell phone coverage in the community if any.

2. Lack of high speed Internet services.

OBJECTIVE:

1. To see if it is feasible to provide a local cell tower within the WWS community to improve cell phone service.

2. To see if it is possible to get high speed Internet access within the WWS community.

TASKS:

1. Locate and contact companies that can provide cell phone tower installations 2. Investigate the details of what is needed to support a cell phone tower installation

3. Find companies that may be interested in building a cell phone tower within the WWS community.

4. Determine “potential” sites for non obstructive type cell towers within the community.

5. Create a plan that could be presented to the WWS POA Board of the findings of this investigation for decision on whether to proceed or not. Including preliminary costs of such a project.

6. Locate and contact companies that had experience in laying high speed fiber optic cable

7. Investigate the areas within the community where the current vacant cable runs are located to allow lower costs and hopefully eliminate unnecessary trenching of roads and access areas.

8. Discuss with companies the best practices & methods for servicing a community like WWS for high speed fiber cable.

9. Present to WWS POA Board the results of the findings along with preliminary costs of such a project.

RESPONSES:

A. We contacted several cell tower companies, Verizon (*1,400), AT&T, Crown Castle( *39,739), American Tower (* 28,463), SBA Communications (* 14,873),T-Mobiletowers (*1,003), KGI Wireless, Diamond Communications(*637),Insite Wireless (*583), Skyway Towers (*250), Horovath Communications (*175). These companies were either sent a letter of interest to them to inquire about the possibility of getting a tower here in the community or a online form was filled out via their web site as requested by them. We are currently awaiting responses back from all of the above companies. * (number of towers installed in US).

B. What we have found that is needed to install a cell tower is a piece of property about .5 acre with local power available, owned by a individual or a organization, property address, legal owner, a site map or site survey from a plot map.

C. We have reviewed various areas of the community for cell towers and currently have found only a few small areas where it “Could” be created without causing unsightly structures in general. One of those sites could be the current water pumping station on Whitewater Drive on the hill, another could be in an area at the community center near the dry lake. Other areas within the development are open for suggestions. D. Until we get responses back from the above companies there is no way for the team to project any financial costs or time estimates for this project. At this point we are in a holding pattern waiting on responses back from the above contacted companies and will advise the WWS POA Board when we have more data to present.

E. Locating fiber cable companies proved to be somewhat more difficult than finding cell tower providers. We were able to contact 3 companies, one which then reached back to us with interest about the project. We had a preliminary phone conference with them Fiber Instrument Sales, that meeting lead to a in person meeting by one of the team members and this company to go over more detailed information about what we wanted to do.

F. It was discovered that the development has one open 3-4” Conduit that was to be used by Verizon to lay copper phone lines in back when the original development was being built out with all the sub structures. That spare conduit could be used to pull fiber through, thus reducing the costs of trenching new trenches through the community. At this time we are investigating this as a positive cost reducing effort.

G. We have also discussed various methods of deployment of High Speed Fiber cable in the community with this vendor and are pleased with what they offer as for support, installations and variety for services.

H. FSI is able to install fiber in a community like ours in various layouts & patterns. One such layout is a star pattern that feeds the points & inter-links of the star from a local central hub station that could be located at the current water pumping station on the Whitewater Drive road on the hill. The water company has been contacted about this option and is open to discussion on this if the decision to proceed from the WWS POA Board and property owners agrees to move forward with this project.

I. FSI has the capability to offer various “Service Plans”, these include: 1. complete installation of all fiber thru the community, install to each home or connection box. Manage all programming for any TV Services that the HOA may choose to offer, manage all billing just like PGMS does. Or they offer a program where the HOA could do portions of the above and be paid for the efforts; some HOA’s do run their own facilities and make a profit.

J. Our thoughts were to have a company provide this high speed fiber connection, it could provide Internet and TV & Voice over IP (Phone services) to our community at a lower cost than many residents currently pay for these services that are currently dial up or satellite. We are told that FSI could install a large dish at a location in the community that would then feed all the fiber within the community for all these services.