Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Police have used data culled from cell towers for a while now to help in solving crimes, and it has largely been ignored by the general public and courts, until now. A federal appeals court in Miami, Florida is examining the legality of this practice. Some claim it’s a slippery slope of invasion of privacy, and even invoke the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, saying grabbing this tower data is an unreasonable search and seizure. Of course, police and their attorneys beg to differ. They reason that your data from the cell tower is already in the hands of third parties (carriers), therefore there is no expectation of privacy. Whichever side of the debate you’re on, it’s worth discussing and determining in the courts. The Supreme Court is also weighing in on an important smartphone issue as well.
How cell towers affect health has long been debated with conflicting reports and findings. This week, chalk up another victory for the “cell tower exposure is harmless” camp. The Grey-Bruce Medical Officer of Health says Health Canada can’t consistently find adverse or negative affects on health from cell towers. The official went on to say that the RF exposure from being near a tower is well below Health Canada’s safety guidelines. She did concede that it’s hard to prove causation between diseases and environmental exposure in the first place. So it’s up to you.
T-Mobile U.S. continues to upgrade its LTE network. The carrier is working hard to improve inconsistent connections when moving around in the network. It plans to do this by adding extra antennas to cell towers, increasing from a 2×2 MIMO output to a 4×2 MIMO output. This improvement promises to boost download performance 50-60% and the carrier says it could offer up to a 100% increase in upload speeds! While T-Mobile has yet to make an official statement on where this initiative will roll out, users claim it’s already active in Chicago, Dallas, and San Antonio.
In DAS news, CommScope reported strong first quarter financials this week. In a press release, the company states that a major part of this success is due to an increased demand for DAS networks across the U.S. “Consumers want a high quality mobile broadband network and U.S. wireless operators are investing in our industry-leading cell site and small cell DAS solutions for increased capacity and the densification of their networks,” CommScope president and CEO Eddie Edwards said.
A few more tidbits:
100% tie-off may seem like a no-brainer, but trainers Safety One Inc. think that sleep deprivation may play a more vital role in tower accidents and tie-off than you may think.
NATE recently had a webinar about OSHA inspections. Read tower industry blogger Wade’s thoughts on it here.
Regional and Local Cell Tower News
- Red River, NM is considering a cell tower on wheels
- Plan for cell tower in Forest Lake, Wyoming is denied
- The Jackson, WY planning commission to hear 80-ft cell tower application
- A&T pitches cell tower in Ephraim, WI
- Verizon scuttles plans for cell tower in Upper Macungie Park, PA
- Public works commissioners in West Covina, CA approve a contested cell tower
- Cell tower proposal withdrawn in Camarillo, CA
- Rome, ME planning board firm about cell tower denial
- Lock, wires cut at cell tower in Centreville, MD
- AT&T still says Scottsdale park in AZ is the best site for a new cell tower
- Cell tower proposed behind Berlin, CT church
- Westover cell tower plan scrapped in Stamford, CT
- New location for proposed cell tower in Meadford, Ontario, Canada
