Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Negative Impact on Real Estate
Certainly you’ve heard in your own experience and through various news stories here in this weekly recap about how people don’t want cell towers near them, claiming it will negatively impact their property values. Apparently the vast majority of people hold this opinion. According to a recent survey by the National Institute for Science, Law, & Public Policy, 94% of those surveyed agree that a nearby cell tower or group of antennas would negatively impact interest in a property or the price they would be willing to pay for it. Here are some of the other juiciest stats from the survey:
- Seventy-nine percent said under no circumstances would they ever purchase or rent a property within a few blocks of a cell tower or antennas.
- Ninety percent of respondents said they were concerned about the increasing number of cell towers and antennas in their residential neighborhood, generally.
Click here to read more about this survey. One thing you should keep in mind though: the survey sample was only 1,000 people. Regardless, 94% is quite high. And yet, I bet most of these people also complain when the browser on their smartphone loads slowly or they miss texts or get dropped calls. Which makes me think most people are like this guy:
Accidental Decommissioning
It always seemed like decommissioning a tower was something that took a lot of time, effort, money, and coordination between contractors, tower companies, carriers, and loads of other people. Therefore, one would assume decommissioning one “accidentally” would be nearly impossible. However, that’s exactly what happened recently. The director of engineering for Connoisseur Media Pennsylvania received a call that there was no audio going to the transmitter. After investigating and double-checking everything he could, he decided to head to the tower site. On the way he encountered a tower crew that informed him they just decommissioned the tower in question. They took everything off the tower except the line that was hot.
Apparently the tower manager was also completely unaware of this decommissioning as well. After a long series of head scratches by various parties, the crew was sent back to the site. Fixing the situation wasn’t so simple though, as temporary measures had to be taken. “Now I have to get that tower company to put back everything with new coax,” the director said.
Cell Tower Quickies
- Coroner IDs cell tower worker killed in tragic accident last week in KY
- Australian law enforcement agencies join their US colleagues in obtaining cell tower data dumps without a warrant.
- TE Connectivity upgrades DAS for All-Star baseball game at Target Field in MN.
Regional/Local Cell Tower News
- Western NY communities want the coverage, but not the towers
- AT&T withdraws plans for cell tower in Portsmouth, NH
- Concerned citizens in Milford, CT insist on many unknowns about cell tower emissions
- In Santa Fe, NM “no” to cell tower is “democracy at work.”
- Neighbors in St. Charles County, MO fight over proposed cell tower.
- Cell tower proposal in residential neighborhood gets rough reception in Hatfield, MA
- Benjamin Tasker cell tower proposal in Bowie, MD is at a crossroads
- New cell tower proposed in southern CO
- Jackson, NC plays hardball with Verizon over Cashiers cell tower
- Neighbors block AT&T cell tower proposal in Portland, OR…because it will benefit sex offender?!
- Wrentham, MA postpones cell tower hearing when overflow crowd shows up
- Ruling on cell tower in Ridgefield, CT due soon; both sides expect an approval
- Eagle City, ID Council votes no to 115-foot cell tower
- Committee in Clintonville, OH says ‘no’ to cell tower after crowd blasts proposal
- Verizon wants to build tower at WVW stadium in Kingston, PA
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