Crown Castle Towers, AT&T, and Sprint have brought a federal lawsuit against the Town of Riverhead, N.Y., the Town Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Board and the Town’s building administrator for alleged “unreasonable delays” and “unsupportable effective denials” of their application to erect a 120-foot monopole. The template nature of the complaint, in part, is similar to the many …
SBA inks a master lease agreement with DISH for its 5G network
DISH and SBA Communications Corporation today announced a new long-term master lease agreement providing DISH access to SBA’s extensive nationwide portfolio of wireless communication sites. The announcement builds upon DISH’s continued progress in acquiring access to the essential infrastructure needed to deploy its greenfield 5G network coast to coast. As part of the agreement, DISH will lease towers from SBA, …
Twenty-eight broadband-related bills to close digital divide introduced by Republicans
Today, House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans introduced 28 broadband-related bills to help close the digital divide, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, through their Boosting Broadband Connectivity Agenda. The group said this legislative package aims to promote new infrastructure deployment; promote competition and consumer choice; modernize environmental or historical preservation reviews or barriers; and promote the deployment of broadband on federal lands. …
Seven new tower agreements signed by DISH as ATC and SBA await word on their offers
As DISH constructs the nation’s first cloud-native, Open RAN-based 5G wireless network, the company announced today it has signed seven new tower agreements. These agreements, with Harmoni Towers, Mobilite, Parallel Infrastructure, Phoenix Tower International (PTI), Tillman Infrastructure, Tower Ventures and Vogue Towers, provide DISH access to more than 4,000 towers and wireless infrastructure assets coast to coast. The vendors will also …
Legislation reintroduced to address the telecommunications workforce shortage
U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today reintroduced the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act, legislation to address the shortage of trained workers necessary to fill next-generation jobs in the telecommunications industry in communities throughout the country. NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors …
DirecTV, the company adrift that keeps on giving grief to wireless workers
In May of 2014, after AT&T announced that it was buying DirecTV for $48.5 billion, it froze additional wireless projects and put on hold the need to marshal up to 1,000 dedicated installation crews, severely crippling many tower installation contractors and suppliers, causing many millions of dollars of losses. Then CEO Randall Stephenson heralded the acquisition, informing analysts that further …
Verizon to double the number of its mmWave sites this year
To take over more of the country’s competitive landscape, Verizon said it will be making investment in mobile networks for the expansion of 5G Ultra Wideband in new and existing markets, the densification of the wireless network to manage impending traffic demands, and the continuous installation of the carrier’s fiber infrastructure across the US. During its Q4 earnings report, Verizon …
Telecom industry unites behind call for broadband workforce development to White House, Congress
A coalition of ten leading organizations representing a broad cross-section of the telecommunications industry today sent a joint letter to the White House and Congress urging support for broadband-related job skills development as part of any infrastructure legislation. The associations included the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), INCOMPAS, NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, NTCA-The Rural …
Network shuts down after lack of profit deflates Loon’s balloons
Alphabet Inc is shutting down Loon after determining the business, which offers balloons as an alternative to cell towers, is not commercially viable, Google’s parent company said on Thursday. Since 2011, the company has been trying to bring connectivity to areas of the world where building a cell tower network is too expensive and realized a decade later that even …
Geo catch puts California man behind bars for Verizon cell site batteries theft
A 32-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing four deep-cycle batteries which were used to power a San Bernardino, California Verizon cell tower site, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. On January 14, a suspect cut two padlocks to access the cell towner site at 17101 State 330 Highway. Unbeknownst to the thief, the batteries were equipped with …
Will it be Senator or President Legere or just more social media chatter while it’s allowed?
The day after the 2016 presidential election that put Donald Trump in office, T-Mobile CEO John Legere Tweeted: “Congrats to the new POTUS. Let’s see what an out of the box, non-typical, non-politician can do for America.” Last Thursday, reacting to the mob that attacked the Capitol, he wasn’t happy with what he saw and requested: “POTUS, please step down …
Tipsy Bobcat operator arrested for threatening cell site workers
Over the years, cell site techs have been shot at with handguns, rifles and even arrows, but a new worksite violence wrinkle occurred Tuesday morning at a rural site in Dassel Township, Minnesota when a 67-year-old man weaponized a Bobcat skid loader because he was upset that the men were working where he could see them from his nearby home. …
Cord cutter Cooper’s memoir is a stunning tale of cell phone history and the next chapter – artificial intelligence
One of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Inventors in History, Martin Cooper, shares an insider’s story of the cell phone, how it changed the world—and a view of where it’s headed in his new book released today, Cutting the Cord: The Cell Phone Has Transformed Humanity. While at Motorola in the 1970s, wireless communications pioneer Cooper invented the first handheld mobile …
Sadly, 2020’s top stories were fatalities and structural failures
What were the most-read stories published by Wireless Estimator this year? It’s not surprising to learn that any media with a large audience of contractors, tower owners, tower techs, engineers, safety professionals, and vendors would find that two topics – fatalities and structural failures — dominate the list. According to Google Analytics, the most viewed article in 2020 was the …
FBI checking to see if 5G paranoia may have been the motive in Nashville bombing
Law enforcement officials are not certain if 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner’s motive for driving his RV to downtown Nashville, Tennessee Christmas morning, allowing himself to be shred to pieces as the vehicle exploded on Second Avenue North was because he believed that 5G technology was killing people. Still, the former IT worker’s alleged belief appears to be their best lead. Douglas Korneski, …
Structures with small cells get a revisit in 2020 update released by Telecommunications Industry Foundation
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Our society has an ever-increasing need for information, video, smart devices, smart infrastructure and all things telecommunications related. The need for these services will continually drive the innovation of the telecommunications industry; the most recent development being the introduction of 5G technologies and the continuing densification of existing networks. As a result of these developments, the …
It’s now officially FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington
Nathan Simington officially became an FCC Commissioner yesterday after he was sworn in by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The ceremony was a virtual event since the FCC continues to work remotely due to COVID-19 concerns. His five year term was back-dated to July 1, 2019 when Commissioner Michael O’Rielly’s term was scheduled to end. O’Reilly was nominated for another five …
Crown Castle shaves 250 from its employee ranks as part of its ‘long-term goals’
Rumors of layoffs at Crown Castle began in early October when an anonymous poster on layoff.com wrote that the company had laid off 70 people in the West. On November 6, there was a report that an additional 57 layoffs were made on the business’s tower side. Last Thursday, another poster said that hundreds of people were let go, identifying them …
Vertical Bridge’s acquisition of Eco-Site allows them to boast surpassing 20,000 towers
Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC, the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure and locations in the United States, today announced the completion of its merger with North Carolina-based Eco-Site, a leading developer of wireless communication, tower sites and infrastructure. The combination increases Vertical Bridge’s owned and master-leased tower portfolio to over 20,000 sites and its entire portfolio to more …
NATE UNITE 2021’s show in Memphis cancelled; Las Vegas is a go in 2022
As an organization founded on the core tenet of safety, the health and well-being of the Association’s members and staff is a top priority. NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, on a daily basis, has been carefully monitoring the evolving landscape surrounding COVID-19 developments in the United States. The NATE Administrative Staff has engaged in extensive planning and devised a …
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