Tower safety update: The industry that is enabling the Internet of Things may benefit from IoT technology itself.
Wireless Industry Safety Task Force
The Wireless Industry Safety Task Force met in Denver last week. The group is an industrywide effort spearheaded by the National Association of Tower...
Networking pays, especially if you're looking for a job as a software engineer.
Job sites for makers of core network gear show increase in software hiring
Many of the routers and switches in wireless networks are set to eventually be replaced by software, and that means...
Sprint is expected to cut operating costs, but to continue investing in infrastructure...
Sprint Spark investment expected to continue per plan
Cost cuts and lower service revenue at the nation's third-largest carrier are not expected to impact Sprint's investment in its network. The carrier is still...
Wi-Fi is now an essential part of our smartphone and tablet-enabled lifestyle. Today, more than two-thirds of our monthly wireless data is consumed over Wi-Fi, and all signs are that this proportion will continue to grow. So while the traditional, cellular-centric view of the...
FCC streamlines antenna rules
The FCC made a decision late last week sure to make tower owners happy. Part 17 of rules and regulations for towers was streamlined, giving greater clarity to tower marking, lighting and registration. The update is intended to address what many...
Sponsored content from CommScope:
Philip Sorrells of CommScope outlined key trends that he thinks will be a focus at CTIA. Sorrells said that some of the most closely watched metrics for operators are ARPU, subscriber growth and investment. Two key themes he has identified are...
Cisco says it will end the year with roughly the same headcount it started with, but the mix will be different.
Cisco continues to realign workforce
Cisco wants to become more of a software company, and that means employees in some legacy businesses will lose their...
The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules requiring text messaging providers to support E911 text messaging, a move that builds on previous commitments from the nation’s four largest wireless providers. Carriers had initially agreed to support such services in late 2012.
The adopted rules will require...
Glow Networks has been involved in deployment and testing of thousands of base stations over the years and has seen the transitions from 2G to 3G to LTE firsthand. "We’ve been involved with the deployment of CDMA, EVDO, recently LTE and currently we’re involved...
Rackspace is managing the cloud and managing to grow, despite competition and price cuts from the mobile Internet's heaviest hitters. Google slashed prices of its cloud services this spring, but despite that the much smaller Rackspace sold $441 million worth of cloud services, a 17%...
As many long-time readers will remember, in October 2012 the I penned a column called “Dear John (Legere)” that talked about the bold, radical moves that would be necessary to change a fouth-place mentality into an innovative market leader (this also started a terrific...
New England-born and Munich-based, Claudia Bacco has joined the RCR Wireless News team as Managing Director - Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). As Managing Director - EMEA, Bacco will be responsible for expanding EMEA commercial and editorial efforts, contributing industry insights, and hosting...
The rapid growth in wireless data use is placing capacity burdens on the traditional large (macro) cell site capacity. The number of users within a cell's coverage area competing for bandwidth has prompted the growth of small cell and DAS. These systems provide similar...
Network quality assurance company NetScout has filed a civil lawsuit against analyst firm Gartner, alleging that Gartner's highly vaunted Magic Quadrant ratings system is a pay-for-play arrangement rather than an unbiased evaluation of the best companies in a given sector.
NetScout filed the lawsuit in...
Mobile Minute:
Keeping data flowing in even in the most crowded environments is an important goal for Japan's SoftBank Mobile, and to that end the company has partnered with Ericsson. SoftBank Mobile will deploy Ericsson's "mobility-based" policy solution, which directly connects the mobility management entity...
Indoor DAS is a growing business for providers of wireless infrastructure services, as carriers look to distributed antenna systems to densify their networks and boost coverage. Contractors are learning that to serve the carriers in this role they need to deploy workers with specific...
EMEA in perspective is a Monday column focused on the identification of regional trends and outcomes of the prior week’s news. Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and Security. Having experience at an operator, software and...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
OSHA cites S&S for W.Va. collapse
You'll likely recall when we reported on a tragic tower collapse that injured two and claimed two lives in February. Paperwork must be...
In infrastructure news this week, LTE tower technology advances in China, wireless backhaul innovations in the U.S., and another acquisition in the infrastructure services space.
Huawei's active antenna unit
Huawei and China Mobile said this week that they've deployed the world’s first LTE TDD 8T8R active antenna unit. The...
Editor's Note: The ecosystem of big data and analytics, and its intersection with mobile networks and cloud computing has increasing relevance to wireless in areas that include service assurance, customer experience management, mobile marketing, location-based services and more. Here is a look at the week's news...
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently published new regulations on the use of hoists to place workers on communications towers.
The new regulation comes several months after OSHA's February letter to the tower industry, warning them to make sure to comply with safety...
Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and Security. Having experience at an operator, software and hardware vendors and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along...
BlueStream Professional Services has purchased parts of Tempest Telecom's DAS business, and will bring one of the industry's most experienced distributed antenna system professionals onboard to manage its DAS and small cells business. Darlene Braunschweig, former president of Tempest's DAS and small cell division,...
High-tech communications entrepreneur Brian Hinman is out to "revolutionize the wireless service provider industry” with his newest startup, Mimosa Networks. Mimosa is working to create Wi-Fi hardware that can offer connectivity over long distances and can compete with fiber on both price and performance. The...
