If this HTML email does not render correctly, click here for the online version. This e-mail was created for [email protected]

Thursday, December 17, 2015 Volume 3 | Issue 245

Product Alert Issued for 10 AES Fall Arrestor German manufacturer Tractel Greifzug has issued an immediate product alert to the tower industry to stop using its retractable type fall arrestor “Blocfor 10 AES Fall Arrestor.” In an industry-wide email sent produced by partner Enercon late Wednesday, the advice was to “Please see below for a Product Alert regarding Tractel Greifzug's Blocfor™ 10 AES Fall Arrestor. If you have this product, halt use until you've consulted the manufacturer's instructions.” The alert continued: “Tractel Greifzug has issued a Product Alert regarding their BLOCFOR 10 AES (SAP 123830).” The company said “Affected devices include:”

Devices with Article number 58612 in combination with serial numbers 1510000 – 1529999 Consult ESC International's HSE Warning for more details. Continue Reading

Frontier Ordered to Lease Broadband to Rival; Settles For $160M A West Virginia administrative law judge in Charleston last week ruled in favor of Citynet, forcing the Stanford, CT-based Frontier Communications to lease unused fiber-optic broadband cable service to Citynet in several rural communities including Philippi, Buckhannon and Elkins, AP reports.

The decision comes after Citynet lodged a complaint with the state public service commission in August 2014, accusing Frontier of trying to shut out competition for high-speed Internet and by not honoring the agreement and stifling competition, AP said.

The judge’s decision comes a week after Frontier agreed in a separate case to spend nearly $160 million to upgrade its Internet network in the Mountain State after reaching a settlement with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office following allegations of false advertising and numerous complaints about Frontier’s slow Internet speeds.

Frontier: West Virginia Settlement Has Little Financial Impact On Tuesday evening, Macquarie Securities Telecom analyst Kevin Smithen updated his outlook on Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) and reiterated his outperform rating. “While the headline figure of a $160 million settlement rattled the stock during a volatile week, we believe the true incremental out-of-pocket amounts to $1.5 million per quarter in lower revenue and EBITDA for the next couple of years as broadband prices are reduced to 28,000 customers currently with 6Mbps in broadband speeds related,” Smithen wrote in a note to investors. He added, “Under normal circumstances we believe FTR would have fought the WV suit, but with final deal approval in California reportedly weeks away, we believe FTR had extra incentive to get this resolved.

”Frontier earlier this month won final approval from California Public Utilities Commission for its proposed acquisition of leading wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc.’s local wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas, a deal worth $1.54 billion. Zacks reported. In 2009, Frontier picked up 4.8 million rural phone lines from Verizon for $8.6 billion. Macquarie Securities’ Smithen also noted that Frontier is fully-funded with “pre-emptive debt financing now looking smart. While the recent sell-off in the high yield market is likely to create extra volatility for FTR shares in the near term and especially before the Verizon deal closes, we don’t see any refinancing risk for Frontier over the next several years.” Continue Reading

A Tower Boon in Boone County, MO The University of Missouri’s journalism program in Columbia is considered among the best in the world. So it’s no wonder that it’s home county, Boone County, is itching for communications towers. Just last week the Boone County Commission approved the first draft of a contract with Western Towers to construct a 175-foot tower at the county’s Emergency Communications Center. At the same time, it opened bidding for a 170-foot tower to be built at Battle High School. And that’s just the latest -- the county has awarded 13 contracts for work related to telecommunications towers so far this year. The projects are centered around Battle High School and the Emergency Communications Center.

Bids for the next tower were far below the estimated $35,000 the county was prepared to spend. The Columbia Daily Tribune quoted Northern District Commissioner Janet Thompson, who said the difference was “stunning.” So far, Mercury Communication bid $17,365, and Spectrum Antenna bid $11,925.

A committee will consider each of the bids, and then make a recommendation to the Commission. The tower will be owned by the County, and provide radio coverage for the area, as well as WiFi for the high school.Meanwhile at the alternate location, the emergency communications center is still under construction, and has cost the county $10 million so far according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. Construction is set to end on June 1.

300’ Tower Comes Down in Ohio Crews working in North Ridgeville, Ohio on Tuesday completed demolition on a 300-foot tower on city-owned property. The tower had been holding emergency communications equipment since the 1970s, but rust had made the tower unsafe for future use.

A newer tower was completed in 2014 to replace the old one. The new tower is owned by TowerCo, and receives emergency communications for the county’s fire and police departments. It also holds antennas used by Verizon and Sprint customers.

The new tower also eliminates current coverage gaps around North Ridgeville. According to the Chronicle- Telegram, Mayor David Gillock explained why it took so long for the old tower to be deconstructed. “We began using the new tower as soon as it went up, but we could not take the old tower out of service until we got everything moved over,” he said.

When it was seen that a new tower was needed, Verizon proposed to use the new tower as a means of improving service in the area, and offered to pay for construction. TowerCo and Verizon ultimately provided funds for the tower.The city’s ambulances have recently been updated to hold mobile data terminals that will use the tower’s capabilities.

Buckeyes Could Get Another Tower The Ohio Village of Montpelier, about 200 miles north of Cincinnati and on the border of Indiana with about 40,000 residents, is being targeted for another in a series of cell towers being erected in Ohio. On Monday, according to Bryantimes.com, Village manager Pam Lucas informed Williams County Commissioners that a company seeking to build a 194-foot tower near Depot Street and the rail tracks has approached the town. Lucas said Columbus-based CTL Engineering wants to build the tower for Verizon to improve cell phone coverage in and around the village.

Since the beginning of the year, carriers have been working full force to build-out their 4G networks in the Buckeye state as consumer demand pushes growth.

UPDATE: Memorial Details for Emmett Benjamin “Jay” Kitchen, 70 Yesterday Inside Towers reported the death of the wireless industry pioneer and now we have details about his upcoming memorial services. The life of Jay Kitchen, who died December 13, at his Palm Island, FL home after a 16-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease, will be celebrated on January 16, 2016 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Mount Vernon Country Club, 5111 Old Mill Rd., Alexandria, VA, 22309 and in Palm Island, Florida on January 2, 2016.

Jay is survived by his wife Dr. Kim Ierna Kitchen of Alexandria, VA, his sister Kay (Ray) Robinson, two sons, Lee and Bryan (Shannon) Kitchen, four grandchildren, Benjamin, Morgan, Zoe, and Logan Kitchen, in-laws, Joseph and Gloria Ierna, sister in-laws, Karen, Cindy and Nicola Ierna, and brother-in-laws Todd and Joseph Ierna. Donations may be made to Ocean Crest Alliance at www.oceancrestalliance.org.

Hawkeye State Gets iWireless 4G LTE Network The T-Mobile partner in said Tuesday it has completed the first phase of its 4G LTE network project in major regions of Iowa. As part of its partnership with T- Mobile, iWireless offers nationwide 4G LTE roaming for its customers.

“I am proud of our team at iWireless in completing this important milestone,” said Craven Shumaker, president and CEO of iWireless. “iWireless is bringing the latest technology to Iowa with our partnership with Nokia. Our customers will now experience an extremely fast data network in Iowa with access to 4G LTE nationwide through iWireless’ roaming partnership with T-Mobile.”

The new 4G LTE installations are located in major cities and regions, such as Des Moines and the Quad Cities, but also along major highway corridors. Overall, iWireless will invest a total of $35 million to improve its wireless network in the state, and expansions will continue throughout 2016. Phase one of the project has resulted in almost 300 new sites, and 100 more are expected to come online in 2016.

Greater Cincinnati Gets T-Mobile ER LTE The self-described “un-carrier’ confirms that its Extended Range LTE, or 700 MHz low band spectrum, “which now carries T-Mobile’s LTE signals both farther and deeper indoors than before,” is now live throughout the greater Cincinnati area.

The company said it has aggressively rolled out 700 MHz service in 246 major metro areas including cities such as Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Cleveland in the past year, “so you can use your compatible phone to get great 700 MHz coverage while visiting friends and family in those cities.”

T-Mobile said “Extended Range LTE Coverage T-Mobile has been rolling out truckloads of new spectrum that carries the LTE signal twice as far from towers, for a massive coverage expansion – plus it’s four times better in buildings than before.”

Barclays Analyst ‘Emerged Encouraged’ After T-Mobile Meeting Amir Rozwadowski clearly was having some fun with English yesterday when he tickled out his note to investors entitled “Steady Execution against a Stable Demand Backdrop.” ‘The Roz,’ as he is known, said “We emerged encouraged following our (Barclays) hosted investor meeting with T-Mobile given our expectations for steady execution against what seems to be a stable demand backdrop. Though issues such as its bad debt expense and pending capital raise caused some recent consternation with investors, expectations for a year-over-year decline in churn, ongoing subscriber momentum (fuelled in part by its promotional activity as well as its push into previously unavailable suburban and rural markets) and improving core EBITDA keep the carrier's share gain/margin expansion story in place. We thus retain our relative Overweight rating on the shares.” He added, healthy promotions (i.e. Binge On, those related to 700MHz deployments) should enable T-Mobile to deliver the upper end of its net add guidance of 3.8-4.2M during 4Q.” He said TMUS shares have a potential upside of 17.9 percent.

Verizon Downgraded by BTIG BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said due to 'tame competitive environment' and a conservative wireless strategy he’s dropping Verizon Wireless from a buy rating to a neutral, according to the British website makemefeed.com. The analyst said Verizon is unlikely to dramatically grow its revenues anytime soon.

Meanwhile Sprint Upgraded to ‘Strong-buy’ Vetr, Inc. on Monday upgraded shares of Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating, MarketBeat.com reports. Vetr currently has $4.76 price target on the cell phone carrier’s stock.

IoT Innovation Series - The Internet of Things Live Webinar January 20, 2016 @ 2 pm ET Moderator: Martha DeGrasse, Editor, RCR Wireless News with panelists Robin Duke-Woolley, Founder and CEO Becham Research; Mobeen Khan, IoT Practice Leader, AT&T Business Solutions; and Craig Miller, VP of Worldwide Marketing, Sequans.The Internet of Things is bringing new players into the wireless ecosystem and creating new opportunities for carriers. While mobile operators see opportunities in asset tracking, mobile health monitoring and industrial IoT, vendors are focusing on the low power, short range connectivity solutions that will be needed to keep billions of things connected. LTE-M, or LTE for machines, represents an opportunity for the base station vendors, and small cell vendors also see promise in IoT. Register here.

If you're interested in having your company featured here, please email request.

350’ KTVK-3TV tower on South Mountain in Phoenix, AZ after tower painting was completed. Photo contributed by Ben Endow.

We love the view from the top and the bottom! Email your tower shots.

Editor: Jeffrey Yorke Writers: Braden Hall, Ben Horvath, Eleanor Snite, Alyssa Stahr & Catherine Wysoczanski Advertising & Classifieds: Phil Cook & Drew Simpson Tower-Pro: Cara Aston

Stay on top of tower news by subscribing here. Current subscribers can change your email address here.

You're receiving this email at [email protected] because you subscribed to Inside Towers newsletter at www.InsideTowers.com.

Send your press release, breaking news, videos, photos, leads, or exclusive stories to our staff at [email protected] or fill out this form.