As the nation's top four carriers work to offer nationwide, high-speed data service, more cell towers are now supporting multiple carriers. But co-location is not enough; operators and tower companies say new towers are needed in many locations.
“We are building more towers today than...
Small cells remain a bit of an enigma for the wireless space. Predictions for years have opined that the move to small cell deployments were just around the corner as surging demand for mobile data services had traditional wireless networks on the ropes.
Those predictions...
Sprint’s network challenges have been well known for some time as the carrier has struggled through its Network Vision upgrade program and resulting hit to its customer base and network quality.
In an attempt to at least persuade customers to give its network a try,...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Climber Dies in Texas
Once again tragedy has struck in the tower industry this week. In San Angelo, Texas, a man who was working on a neighborhood tower...
TE Connectivity says it will become "the leading provider of highly engineered connectivity and sensor solutions" through its purchase of Measurement Specialties (MEAS). TE Connectivity is paying $1.7 billion, or $86 per share.
Measurement Specialties' sensor technologies include pressure, vibration, force, temperature, humidity, ultrasonics, position...
Vendors focus on signaling
The explosion in mobile data traffic has led to an even bigger increase in signaling traffic within the networks, and infrastructure vendors are focused on helping operators recognize and address the issue. There are different types of "signaling storms," - those...
A new report from wireless trade association CTIA shows that the amount of wireless data traffic handled by domestic carriers continues its steep growth, up 120% from 2012.
CTIA's annual survey of U.S. wireless operators showed that they handled 3.2 trillion megabytes of data in 2013....
Before the FIFA World Cup began, Brazilian telecom union SindiTelebrasil said that the operators' networks were ready to handle the increased data and voice traffic, and during the first week of the tournament the wireless performance was closely watched.
During the first games in each of the 12 arenas that...
Vendors are working to make network equipment more flexible, power efficient and smaller to suit the needs of operators. Many of the newest offerings also are intended for use in improving wireless coverage in large, high-capacity venues such as stadiums, where the need for...
Telecom consolidation continues, with Level 3 (LVLT) announcing plans to buy TW Telecom (TWTC) in a $5.7 billion cash and stock deal that will give Level 3 a deeper fiber presence in many U.S. cities. Level 3 is paying $40.86 per share for TW...
American Tower is expanding in Brazil, adding roughly 4,600 towers to the 7,200 towers it already has in that country. The company is buying BR Towers S.A for just under $1 billion. The purchase price will be a combination of cash and the assumption...
Ipoque and Napatech worked with Dell on a recent product launch for network visibility and security company Lancope, and the details of the collaboration were included in a new case study.
All three companies worked on the launch of the Lancope StealthWatch FlowSensor 4000, which Lancope released in May for...
The race towards the next evolution of mobile technology received a boost today as the European Commission and South Korea announced plans to work towards a common definition of “5G” technology.
The Joint Declaration on Strategic Cooperation in Information Communications Technology and 5G agreement calls...
Small Cell Industry Awards
The Small Cell Forum announced the Small Cell Industry Awards for 2014 as part of last week's Small Cells World Summit in London. For small cell innovoation leadership, Alcatel-Lucent won for its site certification program. Cisco won the vendor award for...
Performance monitoring company SevOne has launched what it says is the industry's first appliance for log data analytics.
The SevOne Performance Log Appliance is designed to allow real-time analytics on large volumes of log data, according to the company, allowing enterprises to have a better understanding...
Unfortunately, for those of us not so gifted, PowerPoint’s remain a struggle to insert interesting information into a digital format that sucks the interest out of just about any non-animation information.
With wireless operators continuing to focus their network building and operating resources towards LTE-based services, the need to free up both financial and spectrum resources by decommissioning legacy operations continues to grow.
Some operators have already plunged head-first into these decommissioning projects, with mixed results,...
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...
Verizon Wireless says it has spent roughly $4.2 million to measure RF levels at its 5,000 rooftop antenna sites. The carrier's initiative came in response to a Federal Communications Commission investigation, prompted by complaints that originated in Philadelphia and Hartford. Verizon paid a $50,000...
A poll of state CIOs by their national association found that the development of models and organization around the First Responders Network Authority was relatively mature and education efforts are ongoing.
A new report by the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO), based on the polling...
With more than half of all U.S. wireless calls and data sessions now originating indoors, building owners are acutely aware of the need for indoor connectivity. "Many new venue owners who don't have DAS infrastructure installed are coming to us, kind of recognizing our...
The task facing CSPs is monumental – one of the biggest challenges to CSPs in the last 50 years. Customers are increasingly cutting the cord – literally – eroding the “cash cows” of voice and long distance services.
The jump to 4G has made a significant impact on technologies in place at cellular sites, both macro and small cell, according to Steve King, applications engineer with 3M.
"If I had to summarize what I see happening right now particularly in North America, and...
