Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Volume 2 | Issue 86
Supreme Court Decides to Hear T-Mobile Cell Tower Case
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition to hear T-Mobile South v. Roswell, GA, case 13-975, on ap-peal from the 11th Circuit. This will decide whether or not local governments must provide detailed written explana-tions when denying wireless providers' applicaexplana-tions to build new cell towers in their jurisdictions. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The court will hear an appeal by a T-Mobile US Inc. subsidiary that was turned away for a permit in Roswell, Ga. The company said certain city council members raised various objections to the T-Mobile tower proposal and voted it down. But the city never provided an official written explanation for the denial, the company argued. Continue read-ing here.
Sprint Makes Tower Climber Safety a Priority
It’s about time, right? Sprint is now demanding more accountability of its tower crews, according to RCR Wireless. Sprint is working with PICS Auditing to vet its vendors and evaluate their safety re-cords. Vendors have to pay PICS to audit them, but cannot win Sprint’s business without going through the process. Sprint will not hire vendors that do not receive PICS’ highest safety rating. (Source: RCR Wireless) PICS is a well-known firm that handles safety audits around the world and has demonstrated dramatic reduction in accident rates and death rates. RCR Wireless reported, “Sprint worked with PICS for almost a year to make sure that its own practices were in line with PICS’ safety protocols, then late last year the carrier contracted with PICS to review vendor safety records and work with vendors to improve outcomes.“ Hopefully, we can get the other major carriers to consider investing in the safety of their tower crews as well.
Federal Judge Denies Alabama Telecommunications Tower
Some residents of Muir Woods, Alabama are thankful to a federal judge for denying an appeal by Foresite LLC to build a communications tower near a residential neighborhood. U.S. District Judge William Steele ruled in favor of the Board of Adjustments and Planning Commission to dismiss a
munications tower in west Mobile. The company sued the two boards be-cause in January, they both declined the project. Foresite sued the two city bodies saying that the disapprovals violated the federal Telecommu-nications Act of 1996, according to AL.com. On January 16th, the com-mission denied the request from AT&T for the second time. The decision came after the Zoning Board of Adjustments voted unanimously on Jan. 6 to deny a variance request to allow for the cell tower. The residents wanted AT&T to co-locate their equipment on an existing tower, but the engineering firm, hired by AT&T, examined the area and found that the only way to improve service was to build a new tower.
Wichita Scales Down Towers to Improve Service
If you have ever visited Wichita, Kansas, or perhaps you live there, you may have noticed the lack of cell service throughout the town. Ideatek Communications is looking to work with the city officials of Wichita to construct 35-foot cell towers instead of the 150 to 400 foot towers that most cities have. Ideatek will add microcell technology to these smaller towers. Ivan Kuhn, the VP of Sales and Mar-keting with Ideatek says this could be the solution to the outdated technology. “Basically these an-tennas are filling in the gaps and weak spots by the existing large towers,” said Kuhn. Kuhn says Ideatek would look to put the antennas on existing light poles or install upwards of 120 poles in non-intrusive areas. The city would also receive a onetime fee of $1,000 per pole, based on a calculation of $100 a pole for 10 years.
I’ve Got my Toes in the Water and Cell Phone in Hand
Over the weekend, Verizon field engineers notified the City of Sanibel, Florida that the recently installed cell phone tower dis-guised as a flag pole has been activated and Verizon customers should start seeing an improvement in service. Verizon is cur-rently in negotiations to permit AT&T to co-locate on the pole, as is required by the city. The purpose of this installation was to im-prove safety as well as enhance wireless service and coverage on the island with an aesthetically pleasing structure.
PCIA Announces Keynote Speakers for Orlando Show
The PCIA has announced who will be giving the keynote addresses during the 2014 Wireless Infra-structure Show, the industry's premier event entirely focused on the companies, equipment and technologies that enable next-generation wireless. Produced by PCIA - The Wireless Infrastructure Association, the event will take place May 19-22, 2014 at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Flor-ida. A record number of attendees will hear from Ajit Pai, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission; Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President and President Global Market Development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.; Bill Smith, President, AT&T Network Operations, AT&T Services Inc.; and Vish Nandlall, Head of Strategy, Marketing, and Chief Technical Officer, Ericsson North Amer-ica. "When selecting keynote speakers, we choose experts for their ability to help educate event at-tendees – and the entire industry – on how their organizations are helping to make high-speed wire-less more accessible, more efficient, and more affordable," said Nancy Touhill, director of meetings and events. "Their combined experience and varying areas of expertise is helping the industry define the landscape of how businesses and consumers will use this technology."
American Tower Corp Hits New 1-Year High on Strong Earnings
Shares of American Tower Corp. reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday following a better than expected earnings announcement, American Banking and Market News re-ports. The company traded as high as $86.07 and last traded at $85.74, with a volume of 1,735,110 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $83.52. According to WKRB, “The company re-ported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $984.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus es-timate of $968.18 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.43 earn-ings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis.”
San Marino Advisory Committee Wants Compliance on Conditional Use Permits
After a dozen members of the San Marino Unified School District (SMUSD) Cell Tower Advisory Committee and school administrators were given access to a nearby 60 foot cell tower site, they had a few big concerns. The first being that the exhaust manifold for a diesel generator that would pro-vide backup power is just six feet from the intake of a classroom air conditioner. The second issue they found is that the school's evacuation plan takes students and teachers directly through the fall zone for the tower on their way to official checkpoints. Another issue they found is that according to seismologists, the tower is sitting on an “active” earthquake fault. (Which basically describes most of California doesn’t it?) The original tower, which was built in 2006, is subject to a conditional use per-mit, or CUP, because it is located in a non-educational facility. Educational facilities on school
claiming they were told by the City of San Marino that one wasn’t required. Because the company has so far been unable to produce construction documents for the tower, Verizon will in all likelihood move it or construct a new one to conform with local codes. The new destination of the tower will probably still remain near its current location because Verizon has the right to either build a new tower or move their existing tower within their 1,100-square-foot lease area – that might be no more than a few feet from its existing location. The committee voted to recommend that the SMUSD en-courage the city to impose a 60-day time line on the carrier to comply with the CUP and include a notice of violation. Both motions were approved by unanimous votes of 7-0.
Virginia Community Seeks Feedback on New Cell Tower
Local residents of Reston, Virginia have been notified about plans for a new cell tower that may be built on the edge of a local park. The proposed 115 foot monopole would be located in a wooded area of the park behind a soccer field, which is land owned by the Reston Association. The tower proposal comes from AT&T and Milestone Communications, a local firm that negotiates partnerships between carriers and landowners. The proposal to put the pole on RA-owned land would have to go through RA’s Design Review Board, says Larry Butler, RA’s Parks and Recreation Director. It would also go through the Fairfax County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. There have been two proposals in the past to build a tower on RA property, says Butler. One request was
dropped by the carrier; the other was not approved by the DRB. RA would benefit financially from the arrangement. The cell phone companies pay the landowners to lease the pole space. FCPS, for instance, has made more than $4 million from the arrangement over the last six years, FCPS offi-cials said. Milestone collects rent from the wireless carriers on its towers, 40% of which goes to FCPS. Schools receive $25,000 each time a tower is built, and then $5,000 from each wireless car-rier that leases space on the tower. The alternative is putting them in more prominent places, he said, and pouring that money into a privately-owned property, instead of into the schools, Milestone CEO Len Forkas has said.
Church in Need of Revenue Seeks Approval for Tower Construction
If St. Joseph’s Catholic Church has their way, there soon be another cell tower in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The primary reason for wanting the new tower is financial. "It would definitely help to keep the church in operation for years to come," said Victor Salm, a St. Joseph's Catholic Church Usher. Many people who live near the church, op-pose the proop-posed tower. Local residents are concerned about the tower lowering their property values and possible health risks. The proposed tower would be concealed to look like a steeple and would be built behind a playground. The neighborhood met with a cell phone company representative about the proposed plan. "The biggest thing I said to him, and other people said, ‘Well, can you guarantee that we have no risk with this cell tower?’ And he said, ‘No, I can't,’" Karen Stoehr explained. She picketed against the cell tower and owns a local wellness center near the church. According to the American Cancer Society, cell phone towers aren't known to cause any health effects, but it says there have been very few studies on the issue. "There are a number of an-tennas in the area already. There are other churches, parishes, businesses already reaping benefits from having antennas mounted on their buildings. If we don't have it on our parish here, it's going to be in the area somewhere," said Salm. Many parishioners don't see a problem with the tower either. "I think it's a good idea, I'm for it. I think that would be a wonderful thing," said Becky Van Erem. Pa-rishioner Aaron Schuld agreed. "It doesn't look like a tower of any sort, it's a brick steeple, and it’s actually pretty beautiful."
American Tower Moves into Israel
The officials of American Tower Corporation are talking with Cellcom Israel Ltd. and Pelephone Communications Ltd. to buy all of their mobile sites and lease them back to the carriers, according to Globes. The talks between the parties could solve the objections of the Antitrust Authority to the car-riers sharing their networks, allowing them to carry out their plan to lower costs another way, which should not face regulatory objections. American Tower's representative in the talks, Ronen Barel, declined to comment. American Tower is already on 5 continents with sites in 13 counties. Moving into Israel would just increase their global tower presence. As "Globes" reported, the Antitrust Au-thority opposes the carriers' agreement to build a joint 4G network, which is why American Towers’ offer has interested Cellcom and Pelephone.
The Drivers of SBA Communications’ Expansion into Central and South America by TowerXchange
Kurt Bagwell joined SBA Communications 2001 and since then, his career has changed dramati-cally. After becoming COO of US Operations in 2002, he is now in charge of the company’s thriving international operations in Canada, Central and South America. SBA Communications is a leading tower company established in 1989 and headquartered in Boca Raton in South Florida. In 2012, SBA accomplished its first successful Brazilian acquisition of 800 towers from VIVO, a Telefonica subsidiary and, in recent months, it announced the deal with Oi for an additional 2,113 Brazilian tow-ers, which closed in late November, and an additional deal with Oi for 2,007 more sites, expected to close on or before March 31, 2014. In addition, SBA purchased Redesul/Telcom Towers, a small build to suit firm with 250 towers in the Sao Paulo area, in September 2013. In an exclusive inter-view with TowerXchange, Kurt shares an insight into the company’s Latin American expansion and his views on the future of the tower industry in Brazil and beyond.
TowerXchange: Please introduce us to SBA Communications, including your footprint in South and Central America.
Kurt Bagwell, President – International, SBA Communications:
SBA Communications is a publicly-traded company that has been active for 24 years and is cur-rently a 1,100 employee organization with revenues over US$1 billion annually and over 20,000 sites in its portfolio. We have thousands of rooftops and managed towers in eight countries: United States of America, Canada, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. We have local offices in each of the six countries we operate in Cen-tral and South America. Our tower portfolio counts 2,000 towers in CenCen-tral America and with the near term closing of our announced Oi deal we will be at over 5,100 sites in Brazil, so roughly 7,100 total in the region.
Continue reading here.
