Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Looks like tower accidents and deaths continue, but the ones happening recently are a little different than usual. Read on to find out why. Plus, land owners with towers might be getting the short end of the stick.
Fallen but OK
A man in Old Saybrook, CT fell 80 feet from a neighborhood cell tower last Saturday. When it first happened, no one knew any details about the event, simply that the person was conscious when found. Since then, tower industry blogger Wade has received a response from the person’s mother on his story reporting the incident. She says the person who fell was her son, and that he was okay. The extent of his injuries was only a broken femur. There are still no details as to whether he was working on the tower, or why he was on the tower in the first place.
Undisclosed Death
If that story wasn’t vague enough for you, here’s another: a man in the Charlotte, NC area fell to his death from a tower in the midtown area a few days ago. The body was found by construction workers early that morning in the fenced-in area at the bottom of the tower. Details are incredibly scarce at this point, but police report there will be an investigation and initial findings show no signs of foul play. No one knows whether the man was working on the tower or there for other reasons.
We’ll try to provide more information on both of these stories as they develop.
Private Landowners Underpaid for Towers on Property?
The wonderful tower industry news/blog Inside Towers posted an eye-opening article pertaining to the amount of money landowners are paid to have cell towers on their property. The tower industry is becoming more lucrative all the time with our demand for more and faster coverage. Despite this, many tower companies have kept the money they offer people to host towers on their land modest at best. According to Inside Towers, a single tower can produce a gross profit margin approaching 80%. Current amounts being paid to host this huge money maker seem paltry to some land owners. For instance, according to Inside Towers, “Finley Stadium was offered either $853 a month or a 3 percent commission to allow a 150-foot-high cell tower disguised as a flag pole with a 20-by-30-foot American flag on stadium land.” That doesn’t seem like very much compared the average of $46,000 of profit tower companies receive on each tower every year.
Regional/Local Cell Tower News
- New York court recognizes privacy-invasive nature of cell tower dumps but stops short of requiring a warrant
- Millions of MetroPCS phones could stop working after cell tower upgrades in the Sacramento, CA area
- Merrimack, NH neighbors unite against plan to erect AT&T cell tower
- Planning commission in Augusta, ME puts off vote on new cell tower rules
- Winston-Salem, NC council stumped on cell tower permit requests
- Cell out: Foes of Greens Farms, CT tower rally against plan
- Laurelton, NY residents oppose a planned 60-foot Verizon Wireless cell tower
- New sign, cell tower recommended for approval in Northland, OH
- ‘Pine tree’ cell tower may be built in Pasco, WA
- Selectmen: hunt club not ideal site for cell tower in Darien, CT
- Forks Township, PA supervisors want to negotiate revenue generated from cell tower proposal
- Residents of Southtown area of Chicago, IL decry school cell tower plans
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