Click here for the online version. This e-mail was created for [email protected]
Volume 6 | Issue 213 Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Wrestling Over 5.9 GHz Future Gets More Intense The calls within and outside the FCC are getting louder, to take a fresh look at whether auto safety communications and WiFi can share the same spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band. The Commission this week released results of tests performed on prototype devices to explore potential sharing solutions between the proposed Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices and Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) operations in the 5850-5925 MHz (U-NII-4) frequency band. DSRC uses short-range wireless communication links to facilitate data transfer between vehicle to vehicle, and between vehicles and roadside infrastructure.
But WiFi advocates, as well as FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O'Rielly — say the sharing methodology is already outdated. Rosenworcel said the results, released nearly two years after the testing deadline “are long overdue. But we need to do more than just make our work public. We need to start a rulemaking to take a fresh look at this band and its real possibilities.” O'Rielly said the debate “has gravitated away from the type of sharing regime envisioned in the testing. Instead, the Commission should move past this and initiate a rulemaking to reallocate at least 45 megahertz of the band, which is completely unused today for automobile safety.” Continue Reading
Skyway Gets FCC Win in KY Tower Siting Battle By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers, Washington Bureau Chief In a win for a towerco, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau upheld the agency’s previous decision that a proposed tower in Scott County, KY, will have no effect on historic property. The bureau also dismissed a Petition for Reconsideration and said it will not re-open the Section 106 process.
Skyway Towers originally filed an application in March 2015 to build a 310-foot tower near 1621 Stamping Ground Road. In December 2016, the Kentucky Heritage Council (SHPO) determined the structure would have no bearing on historic property. It later followed up with a note that a “concerned citizen” filed a protest, saying the proposed tower could potentially negatively impact the Choctaw Academy, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and located within the 0.75 mile presumptive Area of Potential Effect (APE) for the proposed 310-foot tower.
Skyway dropped the height to 199-feet so the tower would have a reduced 0.5 APE and not affect the academy. But after a balloon test, the Kentucky SHPO found the tower would still be visible from the academy and recommended it be included in the tower’s APE. Continue Reading
Colorado Does Loveland Love Broadband? The Loveland City Council will vote this week on deploying a $93 million dollar municipal broadband network, according to the Reporter Herald. A ‘yes’ vote would trigger a series of bonds to be issued to build the system.
The Loveland Communications Advisory Board (LCAB) recommended the following procedures to the Council:
The broadband enterprise utility will be city-owned under a retail model with regional collaboration. City Manager Steve Adams will have the authority to set rates, charges and fees for the broadband network and related services within the parameters and reporting requirements to be set by City Council. Adams will have the authority to explore regional partnerships with other governmental entities, broadband providers, and owners of fiber optic cable in order to capitalize on regional municipal broadband opportunities.
The cities of Fort Collins and Longmont will also be likely participants in the venture since the Platte River Power Authority serves them with power and owns fiber rings throughout the area, including Estes Park. Continue Reading
Happy Landings: Austrian Company Develops Parachutes For Drones In times of emergency, drones can be the first ones on the scene, but what happens when a drone encounters trouble? Drone Rescue, an Austrian company, believes that parachutes could be the answer, reports NewAtlas.com. The company's new parachutes were demonstrated to the public at the Intergeo event in Frankfurt earlier this month.
The parachute mechanism in enclosed in a carbon cage with sensors that can detect when the drone is in distress. Parachute and drone systems operate independently. "Our system has the advantage that it manages completely without explosive, pyrotechnical solutions," Andreas Ploier of Drone Rescue explained in a press release. "Consequently we have a system that is considerably lighter, and functions even in a worst case scenario." The goal is for the drone to reach the ground safely, without damaging itself or nearby people in the process.
Drone Rescue parachutes have been constructed in different sizes to accommodate a variety of multi-copter drone sizes and weights. Like their larger aircraft brethren, the systems also use black box flight data recorder data. NewAtlas reported that Drone Rescue believes the black box feature provides protection from potential insurance claims.
October 30, 2018 at Close
American Tower Earnings Call Focuses On Global Interests When American Tower fielded questions about its third-quarter earnings yesterday, analysts wanted info on every market but one: America. Specifically, not on North America, as Central and South were very much of interest. Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Germany and France all were mentioned. If not for one reference to the world champion Boston Red Sox, associations with the USA were conspicuously lacking.
International interests aside, AMT reported Q3 results that were met with subdued but positive reactions from analysts. According to Barclays’ analyst Amir Rozwadowski, American posted results above their forecasts on property revenue, EBITDA, and Consolidated AFFO.
“Property Revenue of $1,752M was 1.4% above our estimate,” Rozwadowski said. “Adjusted EBITDA of $1,095M was 0.9% above our $1,085M estimate, while Consolidated AFFO of $821M was 3.3% above our $795M estimate. AFFO attributable to AMT shareholders was 0.7% above our expectations leading to a beat on per share basis ($1.76 vs. our $1.75 estimate). Of note, during the quarter, U.S. organic tenant billings growth was consistent with last quarter’s growth rate at 7.4%.” Continue Reading
Arizona Tower Threatens “Peace and Tranquility” A new 200-foot Verizon tower has Holbrook, Arizona residents worried they will be robbed of their sense of “peace and tranquility,” White Mountain Independent reported. The tower plans have received opposition from Navajo County planners since June 2015. In an attempt to appease the County Planning Commission and local landowners, Verizon, represented by Sun State Towers, agreed to move the proposed site to a more secluded area, paint the tower to blend in with the landscape, and install no lights.
Still, permanent residents in the area had reservations about the tower. Their concerns were potential health risks from electronic emissions, aesthetics, affect on property values, and the belief that it was unnecessary based on residents’ claims of no cell service issues. In August 2015, local residents Samantha and Eric Morrow considered working with Sun State Towers to have a tower installed on their land, but showed resistance to the current tower plans. According to the Independent, Samantha Morrow said the tower builders just want to “ruin our valley for money,” and Eric Morrow agreed that the motivations behind the tower were only “about money.” Continue Reading
California Sequoia National Park Seeks Public Comment For Cell Site at Wuksachi Village Verizon Wireless is proposing to construct a 138-foot cell tower west of Wuksachi Village to achieve a coverage objective that includes a portion of the Generals Highway, the Wuksachi Village, Lodgepole, and Wolverton areas. Sequoia National Park is interested in public input on the environmental assessment for this project. Antennas would be directed, as much as possible, away from the wilderness. The proposed tower would be located in an established utility site west of Wuksachi Village at the end of an existing paved access road, which provides access to existing above-ground water storage tanks. No improvements to the access road would be necessary for either construction activities or subsequent maintenance of the new telecommunications facility.
The proposed wireless communications facility would include the following components within a 40-foot by 40-foot area adjacent to two existing above-ground water storage tanks:
A 138-foot tall tower with panel antennas and microwave dishes, potentially constructed to simulate a pine tree, mounted on a 4 to 5-foot diameter footer A covered 28-foot by 13-foot steel equipment platform A 500-gallon propane tank mounted on a concrete pad An estimated 1,420 feet of buried electrical cable would be installed along the existing access road to connect the tower to an existing electrical transformer. Two 14-inch diameter fir trees would be removed from the facility site. Continue Reading
AT&T Calls 5G Mobile Device Test Success AT&T said it successfully completed a millimeter wave mobile 5G browsing session with a standards-based device on a mobile 5G network on Monday night. That builds on a previous trial in September, when the carrier made a wireless 5G data transfer over millimeter wave, connecting to standards-based mobile test equipment in Waco, Texas.
Monday night’s browsing session was on what will be an AT&T commercially available 5G device – the NETGEAR Nighthawk® 5G Mobile Hotspot. AT&T’s 5G network will be available in portions of 12 markets this year, with an additional 19 cities in early 2019.
AT&T Mobility and Entertainment President David Christopher called the test “a seminal moment in the advancement of mobile 5G technology.”
Verizon Network Investment – Trick or Treat? by John Celentano, Contributing Analyst to Inside Towers Here’s a scary thought – one of the biggest carriers on the planet is scaling back on its network investments at a time when all the market drivers are pointing to significant need for new, high-speed infrastructure. Verizon just reported its third quarter 2018 results and once again lowered its guidance for full-year 2018 capital expenditures now to the $16.6-17.0 billion range.
Recall that in its first quarter 2018 earnings call, the company highlighted its capex outlook for the year, “We maintain our 2018 guidance range for capital expenditures of $17.0 billion to $17.8 billion. We expect capital expenditures to be more evenly distributed throughout 2018 than in previous years.”
How did that work out? It turns out not very well.
The company’s Q218 wireless network investment took an unexpected downturn that was atypical of prior year investment levels for the period, and that spooked investors and suppliers alike. We looked at what happened in an Inside Towers analysis on August 10. Continue Reading
Australia Arsonist Torches Towers Down Under Perth, Australia resident Matthew Paul Etty was convicted of arson for fires he set in 2016 that caused $400,000 (USD) in damage to cell tower facilities, reports thewest.com.au. “Virtually every person’s day-to-day life in the community now revolves around telecommunications — mobile phones, computers, mobile devices,” Justice Michael Corboy said. “It is obviously a very serious offense to interfere and permanently or temporarily damage such facilities.” Etty will be spending the next four years in jail.
The serial arsonist was caught on camera when he set off a motion detector at a Telstra communications cell site he had broken into. Etty has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and was suffering under the delusion that he was protecting the public from dementia caused by the cell towers. Corboy said that sentencing in this case was especially difficult given its serious nature and would have been more severe had the individual not had mental health issues.
Settlement Window Opens for Conflicting Displaced LPTVs, Translators The FCC opened a special application window yesterday, October 30, to settle channel disputes between some displaced repack stations. Low-power TV stations (LPTV), TV translators, and analog-to-digital replacement translator (DRT) stations filed over 2,100 applications between April 10 and June 1.
In this notice, the FCC lists displacement applications that are mutually exclusive, meaning they conflict with other applications. In the new window, the Media Bureau is accepting applications from those that resolve their dilemma through an engineering amendment, legal settlement or engineering settlement. The new window ends January 10, 2019.
FCC Lists 134 Long-Form Applicants for Auction 903 More than 130 applicants in the Connect America Fund Phase II auction (Auction 903) submitted the long-form application portion of FCC Form 683 by the October 15 deadline. The FCC’s Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force, Wireline Competition Bureau and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau said winning bidders could assign some or all their winning bids to one or more related entities.
Auction 903 ran from July 24 to August 21. 103 bidders won $1.49 billion over 10 years to provide fixed broadband and voice services to over 700,000 locations in 45 states.
A spreadsheet, available on the Data tab of the Auction 903 web page, identifies the long-form applicants and lists the number of census blocks and locations, as well as the support amounts, by state, associated with each applicant. Where applicable, the winning bidder that assigned bids to the applicant is also identified. In addition, the agency lists the eligible census blocks associated with each long-form applicant.
MasTec Network Solutions -- Full Crews, Multiple Locations
MasTec Network Solutions is looking for FULL CREWS in Corona, CA, Sacramento, CA, Houston, TX and North Little Rock, AR. We need Technicians II, III and Foremen for our East Syracuse, NY, Itasca, IL, and Orlando, FL locations. We are Tech-Centric, meaning we lead from the ground-up. With hiring, referral and retention bonuses, paid training, paid industry certifications, competitive per diem and benefits, we are serious about treating our technicians well. Check us out today! Search by job title and location on our job site mnscareers.mastec.com.
Tower + Civil Foreman, Lead Technicians and Technicians VERTICOM has been an industry leader in Real Estate, Engineering, Wireless & Small Cell Construction and Fiber Construction for over 17 years. We are currently looking for Tower and Civil Foreman, Lead Technicians and Technicians in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. We offer a $2,000 sign on and $500 referral bonuses along with full benefits after 30 days. In addition, we pay $100 per day per diem, provide paid in-house crew safety certification and training, and quarterly performance bonuses.
Apply online here or email us at [email protected]. We look forward to you joining our team!
Rize Solutions is a certified Minority Business Enterprise and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, providing professional staffing, recruiting and telecom development services. Rize Solutions is actively seeking an A&E Project Manager in Denver and a Construction Manager in Connecticut. Please click for more information/ to apply:
***NEW POSITIONS***
A&E Project Manager - Denver
Construction Manager - CT
LBA Job Opportunity Director of Training Services, LBA University
LBA Group, Inc. has an immediate opportunity for a Director of Training Services for LBA University. The Director of Training Services is responsible for sales, marketing, customer orders, product development, and customer support. The mission of the Director is to deliver outstanding products that ensure revenue growth, margin and customer satisfaction. The Director must identify areas for growth and create strategic product line roadmaps to help drive new and existing products. Click here to learn more.
EQUIPMENT FOR SALE: 2000 Timberland Erectors Hoist
Sioux Falls Tower & Communications is selling a Timberland hoist it purchased in 2006 from another entity. It has been used intermittently for the past 12 years. Since Sioux Falls Tower has lessened its focus on full-service tall-tower work, it is looking to sell it with or without the trailer and wire rope. For more details and asking price, click here and call 605.331.6972. Ask for Mike Fowler or Bart Roberts.
Tivoli, TX contributed by Ruben Lucero.
Email your tower shots or upload them here. Please be sure to include the tower location. Remember to follow us on Instagram!
Keep current throughout the day.
INSIDE TOWERS TOWER-PRO.COM
Managing Editor: Jim Fryer Washington Bureau Chief: Leslie Stimson Reporter: Keara M. Piekanski Contributing Analyst: John Celantano Marketing & Advertising: Megan Reed Creative & Advertising: Cara Aston Advertising & Classifieds: Phil Cook
You're receiving this email at [email protected] because you subscribed to Inside Towers newsletter at www.InsideTowers.com.
Inside Towers | 149 S. Roscoe Blvd. Ponte Vedra, FL 32082 © 2018 Inside Towers, All rights reserved.
Unsubscribe [email protected] from this list. Update My Preferences