CHICAGO-More antenna sites and towers will be needed as the wireless industry begins to address the data market, said Malcolm Wood, president and chief executive officer of San Diego-based Littlefeet Inc.
“It is OK in voice to lose a few words. The real challenge is to have all of us understand that when we move to data there is going to be an increased level of quality,” so that data packets don’t get lost, Wood noted. “All of the companies are looking at increasing quality.” Increased quality means more towers.
As an example, Wood said he has heard the United Kingdom will need 60,000 towers to provide third-generation services, following the recent $38 billion sale of 3G licenses in Great Britain.
If Wood’s U.K. numbers are correct, today’s projections of 400,000 towers in the United States will need to be increased, commented John Clark, outside counsel to the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Wood and Clark were two members of a panel on “Meeting New Challenges for Infrastructure Buildout” at last week’s PCIA Global Xchange.
The placement of new towers traditionally has been controversial, but may be starting to lose its punch. Peter Silverstri, a member of the Cook County, Ill., commission and village president of Elmwood Park, Ill., said that as Cook County reviews its zoning ordinance for the first time in 25 years, cell-phone towers is the fifth of six controversial issues being examined.
That’s not to say people are happy about siting towers, Silverstri said, noting that one town in Cook County erected a billboard across the street from a tower decrying the tower. He found out about it when someone called him on a cell phone to tell him about it.
“Everybody wants dependable phone service but no one wants a tower … Everybody wants to go to heaven but no one wants to pay the price,” Silverstri said.
Leap Wireless International Inc., which is ramping up to offer service in 35 areas by the end of 2001, said it is important to gauge a locality’s reaction to siting towers.
“A year is not acceptable. That is why we ask the local jurisdiction for suggestions to cut down the time,” said Laurie Itkin, Leap’s director of government affairs. Even if the carrier is able to cut its time to deployment by a week, it helps. “For a company trying to be the first to market with its wireless local alternative, that’s important,” Itkin noted.
Leap thinks that it can collocate the majority of its antennas, thus reducing the need for new towers.
Richard Connor Riley, principal of Richard Connor Riley and Associates L.L.C., thinks governments need to realize that probably only 25 percent of the new sites will require new towers. The rest can be located on existing structures, including towers, buildings and other tall structures.
Carriers and tower companies should let local government officials know about the benefits of wireless service, such as 911, said Sheldon Moss, director of government affairs for Crown Castle USA.
