A look inside the life of a tower climber
RCR Wireless News reporter Joey Jackson attended South Wireless Summit last week and had the opportunity to talk to some tower climbers. They provided insight into the life of a tower climber, which we featured in the latest edition of Gigs.
In addition to discussing the tower industry and a day in the life, these climbers also took the time to discuss some of their more harrowing stories. In what we hope will be a reoccurring segment, in the first episode of Tower Stories, Corie Fontenot, a veteran tower climber and safety manager at Tower MRL in Wisconsin, talks about what happened to a friend that serves as a sobering reminder of what can happen when a tower crew member loses focus.
Vertical Bridge acquires new tower portfolio
Vertical Bridge, an independent and up-and-coming wireless infrastructure company, this week entered into a deal to acquire the tower portfolio of CiG Wireless, which includes over 200 tower sites. The deal is being valued at $143 million.
Vertical Bridge has been busy in the past year, with additional company funding last November and in December acquired towers from both U.S. Cellular and IHeartMedia.
100-foot tower pizza delivery
It wouldn’t be a day in the wacky world of the Internet without a fascinating video that some love and others shout “fake!” about. This video uploaded recently shows a person using a pulley system to deliver a pizza and a bottle of water to a tower climber working 100 feet in the air.
“You got to make sure that you use proper rigging,” said one of the men in the video. We couldn’t agree more.
Regional/local tower news
- Mentor, Ohio, mulls Verizon cell tower proposals.
- Slightly higher budget, cell tower ordinance on West Gardiner, Maine, warrant.
- Proposed Black’s Mill cell tower draws opposition in Dawsonville, Ga.
- Proposed 122-foot cell tower in Edgemere-Sackville, Ga., neighborhood moves forward.
- Alki neighbors fighting to prevent cell tower installation in West Seattle, Wash.
- Residents fight to keep new cell tower out of neighborhood in Omaha, Neb.
- Pine Island, N.Y., Fire District drops cell tower plan<./a>
- Warwick, N.Y., cell tower a no go.
- Sea Isle City, N.J., hears residents, but cell tower plan remains on track.
- Cell tower opposition mounts in Big Bear Lake, Calif.
- Elm Grove, Wis., church irks residents with cell tower proposal.
- Boothbay, Maine, planning board begins work on new cell tower ordinance.
