Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Tower climber injured, but OK
This past week a tower climber was injured while working on a tower in Georgia. The climber was 125 feet up on the tower when he slipped and fell, falling 15 to 20 feet before his cable grab system stopped his fall. The fall knocked him unconscious, but when he awoke, he lowered himself onto a platform as the two workers on the ground contacted 911. Local firefighters arrived on the scene and used a harness system to safely lower the worker from the tower. He only sustained a shoulder injury. We’re happy to hear he’s alright and thankful he wasn’t working alone. Just goes to show, proper safety equipment, tie-off and working in teams can really save your life.
Police need warrant to retrieve tower data
Good news for privacy advocates everywhere. An 11th District federal appeals court in Florida upheld a previous ruling that when police obtain location information from cell towers in an investigation and don’t have a warrant, it is a violation of a person’s Fourth Amendment rights to protect from unreasonable search and seizure. This is ground breaking as it’s one of the first times a modern interpretation of the Fourth Amendment has been proposed involving privacy violation beyond the physical, extending to digital information from tower sites. This case is important because prior to now no higher court has handed out a ruling on the topic of privacy of cell tower data, so the decision in this case will affect court cases and general practices of police.
Tower RF radiation threat?
We’ve reported on multiple studies that have shown that RF radiation from towers is harmless, however, there are still some studies to the contrary. Adding fuel to the fire, Miranda Allen, CEO of RSI, posted a guest article on RCR Wireless News this week on the dangers of invisible RF radiation and what you can do to reduce risk. Allen claims overexposure to RF radiation can result in injuries, “including burns, shocks, eye damage and even mental impairment.”She stresses the point that it’s not just tower workers that are at risk, but anyone nearby. It’s an incredibly long and detailed article and well worth the read.
Tower technology trends
The name of the game in tower technology these days is network densification, according to Steve King, and applications engineer at 3M. King recently participated in a video interview with RCR Wireless News’ Kelly Hill discussing what he saw going on in the industry and where companies are focused. At the national carrier level, King reports a huge push to build out architecture on existing towers and systems for higher capacity and speed. King also discussed installation best practices, energy efficiency and how it affects changing loads on the tower and tower mounts. Watch it here:
Cell tower news quickies
- Inside Towers has a great write-up about the difference between priorities of carriers and tower climbers.
- Researchers at Cornell have created geothermal heat pumps to keep cell towers cool.
- CommScope named three premier DAS partners
- CNN posted a click-bait worthy article titled “Mini cell towers: The end of crappy phone service.”
- One small town in New Jersey hates the idea of a cell tower so much that it created a website, FightTheCellTower.com
Regional/local cell tower news
- Rumblings of Westport, Mass., cell tower worries neighbors.
- Hempfield, Pa., rejects proposed cell tower.
- Balloon float to show size of proposed cell tower in Portland, Conn.
- Former cell tower opponent files complaint against Otisfield, Maine.
- Paramus, N.J., to appeal cell tower ruling.
- The American Legion wants a cell tower on their land in Alpharetta, Ga.
- Jackson, N.C., assesses cell tower regulations.
- Cell tower problem leaves customers, police without service in Jackson, Mich.
- Ventura County, Calif., is moving to enact new cell tower law.
- A 60-foot cell tower debate rests with town council in Prescott Valley, Ariz.
