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Subscribe • Advertise Wednesday, March 13, 2019 Volume 7 | Issue 50

Lawmakers Hear Sharply Different Views of Merger Outcome By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief In a nearly two and a half-hour hearing Tuesday that turned contentious several times, lawmakers on a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee tried to parse whether the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint is in the public interest.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, said from the outset he’s, “deeply skeptical” that consolidation fosters more competition. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), said he hasn’t made up his mind, but doesn’t think “antitrust questions should be partisan.”

Full Judiciary Committee Chair, Jerry Nadler (D-NY), said, “We must determine if a combined company would have less incentive to innovate and compete with competitors” in an already “highly concentrated” market. The resulting three large carriers would each have a third of the market, he added.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who would lead the “New T-Mobile” post-merger, said the result would be more jobs, and “the new company would ensure America would win” the race to 5G, everywhere, including rural areas. He also said the new entity would offer in-home broadband, “freeing millions from the stranglehold of big cable.” Continue Reading

Georgia Resident Backlash Gets City to Enact a Moratorium on Towers The Stonecrest City Council is moving to enact a moratorium on cell towers after hearing from angry residents about an existing, 199-foot tower. The Council voted to direct the city attorney to draft a 60-day moratorium on the construction of cell towers while the city re-examines the tower in question, which may have been improperly constructed on land zoned for commercial use for by a daycare.

According to Councilmember Diane Adoma, the move will give the city time to “flesh out details and legalities” about the cell tower in question and the process for building others.

Many of the residents were vocal in their opposition to the cell tower built by Vertical Bridge due to the omission of a public hearing before the tower was erected and a lack of action from the city, reported the Journal-Constitution. Continue Reading

Is Chinese Telecom Gear Near U.S. Military Bases Concerning? Chinese telecom Huawei technology and equipment is used by many small, rural wireless carriers because of its low price. There’s concern from U.S. security officials, that situation could potentially endanger sensitive military sites.

Federal dollars used to subsidize those carriers, stem from the Universal Services Fund, which helps fund wireless and broadband connectivity to poor and rural communities. Last year, FCC chairman Ajit Pai proposed banning carriers from using USF funds to buy equipment from Huawei and other companies deemed to be national security threats. This parallels an administration ban prohibiting the U.S. military, federal agencies, and their contractors from doing so as well.

CNN found in some cases, these smaller carriers provide exclusive coverage to rural areas close to U.S. military bases. CNN studied FCC filings for towers sited close to Malmstrom Air Force Base in central Montana, home to more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles buried deep underground. The rockets are part of the U.S. Strategic Command. Continue Reading

FCC Repack Reimbursement Plan Favors TV PBS experienced some disappointment in the run-up to Friday’s FCC meeting concerning how repack reimbursements will be distributed.

Before the draft order came out, PBS asked the Commission to reimburse “third parties” like T-Mobile, which has been paying PBS to move its translators to speed up access to that 600 MHz spectrum. The agency rejected that proposal in its draft, noted Current, because those did not meet the definition of displaced stations, and therefore are not eligible to receive repack funds under the Act passed by Congress.

The draft order concerns a total of $1 billion in repack reimbursements funding appropriated over two years. The agency says it will prioritize payments to full power, Class A, and MVPD entities over payments to LPTV/translator and FM entities. Continue Reading

OSHA Requests Information on the Powered Industrial Trucks Standard The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is requesting information, as the Agency considers rulemaking to update the powered industrial trucks standards for general, maritime, and construction industries. The standards became effective in 1971, and were based on industry consensus standards from 1969. Since then, national consensus standards have been updated several times.

OSHA is requesting information on: the types, age, and usage of powered industrial trucks; maintenance and retrofitting; how to regulate older powered industrial trucks; types of accidents and injuries associated with operating these machines; costs and benefits of retrofitting the machines with safety features; and other components of a safety program. OSHA will use the information received in response to this request to determine what action, if any, it may take to reduce regulatory burdens and jobs while improving worker safety. Continue Reading

March 12, 2019 at Close

West Virginia County Residents Asked Yet Again to Petition For a Broadband Grant Residents of Preston County, West Virginia are being encouraged to take a survey before April 5, in order to qualify for a broadband grant, reports the Dominion Post. The USDA Rural Utilities Service Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant Program is designed to extend internet access to underserved areas.

Preston officials noted that this is the region's third attempt to gain the grant. If approved, the grant will help bring internet service “at the designated broadband grant speed of at least 25 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up” to over 1,200 households in Preston County. Last year's application missed funding approval by just a few points.

If funding is approved this year, the grant will enable the Preston County Economic Development Authority (PCEDA) to partner with Digital Communications and begin the broadband installation. The project is expected to include 84 miles of trunk fiber. Continue Reading

West Virginia Small Cells Come to Huntington: “A Whole Lot of Ugly For Just $10,000 a Year” Last month, Mayor Steve Williams announced AT&T would bring 5G service to Huntington, making it the first in the state to receive the technology. The small cells — totaling 30 to 40 — would be placed throughout neighborhoods without the council's prior approval, according to the Herald-Dispatch.

According to Assistant City Attorney Ericka Hernandez, the 5G technology is, "highly, highly regulated" by the FCC. Due to this factor, municipalities do not have control over where the towers are placed on public right-of-ways and only have the option to implement design standards before the towers are installed.

"We can require them to have all the components internalized," Hernandez said. "We can require them to have a light feature or require them to have flower hangers or baskets, that sort of thing." Continue Reading

National Wireless Safety Alliance Announces Board of Governors Appointments

The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) announced yesterday that Stephanie Brewer, Compliance Coordinator for MUTI-Sabre Industries Telecom Services, Neal Brown, Department Manager of Wireless Development at Pioneer Telephone Cooperative Inc. and Sonya Roshek, Vice President, Field Services for B+T Group have been appointed as new members of the Alliance’s Board of Governors.

NWSA, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, is a national non-profit assessment and certification organization established to provide thorough, independent assessments of knowledge and skills and provide verifiable worker certification in order to enhance safety, reduce workplace risk, improve quality, encourage training, and recognize the skilled professionals who work on towers and other non-standard communication structures. Continue Reading

Smart Cars May Not Equate to Fewer Insurance Claims No matter how smart our cars get, the insurance industry knows that not-so-smart drivers will continue to get into auto accidents. Safety metrics designed to keep drivers safer, such as ‘smart cars’, do not necessarily drive down claims, explains InsuranceBusinessMag.com.

In days past, a ding in a metal bumper could be fixed for little or no cost with a well applied mallet. Sensors in today's cars likely reduce the severity of that accident, but incur their own costs when the sensors need to be repaired or replaced. “In theory, over the next 10 years or so, these increasing capabilities of the car to avoid accidents should eventually start to drive down incidents, but we’re still in the early stages of that,” said Drew Aldrich, a principal at venture capital group, American Family Ventures.

The edge computing principles employed by the auto industry keep the response time low by allowing the car to react quickly without routing information through an outside processing source. Aldrich elaborated, saying, “As the sensors in the cars become increasingly important to making decisions or actions in the car – nudging the car from swerving into lanes or accident avoidance – the actual compute has to be done in the car itself. It can’t be sent to the cloud for the compute to be held there and then sent back – the feed just doesn’t require it – so that’s causing lots of really interesting things in the world of edge computing, where the actual computer doing all of the compute work is happening in the vehicle itself.” Continue Reading

Oregon CTIA Opposes House Bill Taxing Cell Phones for Rural Broadband Oregon’s House Bill 2184 hopes to raise $10 million per year in an effort to fund broadband projects throughout the state. Advocates say it would cost cell phone subscribers between $4 and $12 a year, according to the Oregonian. The bill, however, is opposed by the wireless industry, which hopes to keep cell phone fees at a minimum. CTIA believes a wireless phone tax to subsidize wired internet service is nonsensical and burdensome to Oregonians.

“HB 2184 is tens of millions of dollars in taxes that will hurt all Oregonians – including those with low and moderate incomes,” said Jamie Hastings, vice president of state and external affairs for CTIA. “This regressive bill will have a negative impact on working families and burden those who rely most on wireless as a vital lifeline,” Hastings said in a written statement. Continue Reading

APCO Names Recipients of 2019 Public Safety Awards APCO International announced the recipients of its 2019 Public Safety Communications Leadership in Policy Awards, who will be honored during APCO's 15th Annual Public Safety Communications Leadership in Policy Awards Dinner on May 21 in Arlington, VA. The Awards Dinner commemorates leaders who have made outstanding contributions to public safety communications.

The award winners are:

Leadership in Advocacy Award, Dereck Orr, Chief, Public Safety Communications Research Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology Leadership in Regulatory Service Award, Lisa Fowlkes, Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Federal Communications Commission Leadership in Legislative Service Award, The Honorable Greg Walden, U.S. House of Representatives Leadership in Advancing Communications Policy Award, The Honorable Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Dielectric Designs VHF Antenna System for Sutro Tower Repack Project Dielectric designed a technically complex, stacked antenna array for DTV broadcasters, KGO-TV and KRON-TV. The stacked array is slated for installation later this year atop Sutro Tower in downtown San Francisco.

Dielectric VP/GM Keith Pelletier, said the antenna array is one of the company’s most complex designs. It needed to comply with the area’s earthquake codes. “Our mechanical engineering team also ensured that KRON’s antenna could support the weight of KGO’s antenna. These design considerations called for a grade of steel that is much thicker and stronger than that which is customary for antenna construction,” said Pelletier.

The final designs are currently being reviewed by a third-party structural engineering firm in San Francisco to ensure they meet the earthquake code. The antenna array will then be constructed during the second quarter of 2019. Continue Reading

Why the Sutro Tower Repack is Complex In addition to needing to design an antenna array that can withstand strict earthquake codes for KGO-TV and KRON-TV on Sutro Tower, Dielectric needed to take other factors into consideration when designing the new array for the tower repack project.

The stacked antenna array will be affixed to one of the three “candelabra” arms extending from the top of 977-foot tall Sutro Tower. In order to meet the earthquake code, the stacked array is being reinforced with guy wires which are anchored at the top of the candelabra platforms.

Dielectric specializes in tower top and tower stacks but the guy wire requirement is unique to Sutro Tower. The installation grows trickier given the densely-packed downtown residential neighborhood and busy streets surrounding the tower – a job that only a handful of specialized tall tower crews can accommodate, according to the manufacturer. Continue Reading

SAC Wireless: Join the Largest Wireless Construction Company in the United States

SAC Wireless is looking for experienced tower climbers across the US who are ready to join our fast-growing cell tower construction teams!

What you will get:

Competitive hourly pay rate Up to $125 per day per diem Paid time off and paid holidays Medical/Dental/Vision/401k Best in class training program New for 2019 – Quarterly cash incentive program

To apply, click here or send your resume through here.

MasTec Network Solutions: Full Crews

MasTec Network Solutions is looking for full crews through General Contractors and Subcontractors.

We offer benefits like industry safety training and certifications and equipment and trailer leasing, interest free for 18 months! With expedited payment terms, productivity bonuses, and mobilization fees, it doesn't get any better than partnering with MasTec! Call (205) 422-1218 or email [email protected].

Communications Tower Group (CTG) LLC Development Coordinator - Charlotte, NC

Responsibilities:

Manage overall maintenance of current assets, construction process for new tower builds and DAS, modifications and collocations from inception to completion. Set and maintain construction, colocations and maintenance schedules. Manage current landlord and customer relationships. Coordinate and manage vendors, including engineering, general contractors, tower manufacturer, and third- party inspectors.

The successful candidate should have 3-5 years of industry experience in the wireless infrastructure and telecommunications. A working knowledge of the tower industry is preferred. Motivated to work hard and take on a variety of work. Strong organizational and project management skills and ability to accomplish multiple tasks within agreed upon timeframes through effective prioritization of duties and functions in a fast-paced environment. To apply, email your resume here.

Infinigy: Fiber Splicing and Fiber Construction Lead

Infinigy is looking to hire leaders and thoughtful individuals for Fiber Splicing and Fiber Construction Lead positions. As an aggressively growing company we are happy to pay for the right person(s). Must be willing to travel and work long hours but we will make it worth your effort. Email to apply.

APC Towers: Executive Director, Business Development

Preferred location is the western region, e.g. Texas and/or surrounding areas, but if we find a qualified candidate outside of that area, we would be open to discussing an agreeable location. Responsibilities include:

Work with the carriers at the market and regional levels, focusing west of the Mississippi Market APC Towers portfolio regionally for collocation opportunities Successful negotiator and able to track key sales indicators at the corporate and area level Identify and proactively seek new business for APC Towers, including opportunities to gain market presence Able to meet or exceed established sales performance targets Understand the competition across markets and track key metrics as needed Focus on developing a portfolio through build to suit agreement and tower acquisitions Serve as the primary contact for carriers nationwide to ensure customer satisfaction Track market trends and evaluates opportunities for unique or creative approaches to the various markets Maintain and update files in the document and project tracking databases as required

To review job qualifications and apply, click here.

Diamond Communications: Construction/Site Development – Project Manager

Diamond Communications is seeking a Construction/Site Development – Project Manager to work at its Short Hills, NJ headquarters managing the build out of new cell towers primarily in southeastern US.

Responsibilities:

Oversight of the activities and logistics of contractors and employees including permitting and zoning through tower and site construction and carrier integration. Working closely with wireless carriers to make sure projects are on schedule and in accordance with their requirements. You will be a key member of the Diamond team working with the COO and SVP of Development, ensuring that all goals and objectives are accomplished on time and within budget.

We offer an attractive compensation and benefits package in this permanent position with the opportunity to grow as the company continues to expand.

For more information click here and/or send your resume to [email protected].

Towers along Horseshoe Trail in Cornwall, PA Contributed by Isaac Sechtem

Email your tower shots or upload them here. Please be sure to include the tower location. Remember to follow us on Instagram!

Managing Editor: Jim Fryer Washington Bureau Chief: Leslie Stimson Reporter: Keara M. Piekanski Contributing Analyst: John Celentano Marketing & Advertising: Megan Reed Creative & Advertising: Cara Aston Advertising & Classifieds: Phil Cook

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