Issues Surrounding Installation of a Cell Tower? 54
But They Look Terrible as Trees asks: "My company has been approached by a developer who wants lease a section of our property to install a cell phone tower. The tower would be somewhere between 50 and 110 meters tall and would be located about 250 meters from our main building.
I am curious what types of interference and other issues anyone may have noticed having a cell phone tower in the vicinity of their facility, such as disruption of 802.11, VHF radio, aesthetic issues, complaints from neighbors, or truly bizarre plots. Has anyone built their own tower and then leased space to providers on the tower?"
Use it to your advantage (Score:5, Funny)
Make the tower look like a 110 meter penis. That'd be sure to get your company more attention and press coverage than in your wildest dreams!
Re:Use it to your advantage (Score:2)
You'll Need Some New Equipment (Score:2, Funny)
Um (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Um (Score:1)
It doesn't sound like the poster was asking for a technical analysis, just anecdotes. Considering the last hyperlink in the request, I'm not sure if the poster is all that serious. However, I think this is an interesting topic since a tower is going up just a few blocks from my house and efforts through community action to thwart its installation were unsuccessful. This seems like a perfect forum to h
Re:Um (Score:5, Informative)
I am an RF Engineer, and I provide consulting services to the wireless industry including expert testimony supporting tower placement, interference analysis, RF exposure reports, and other such studies.
Interference will likely be a non-issue, but you don't have to take my word for it. You can ask the provider to supply an intermod study that includes any equipment you have concerns about. You will need to give them the location, make, model, and frequency of the equipment you have questions about.
Aesthetic issues / neighbors - this is really a matter of location. I personally think that most towers don't look too bad, certainly much better then power lines at least. You really won't know how big these issues will be until the public meeting. In some places (like the meeting I will be testifying at next week) a small tower is a huge issue, in other places no one cares. You probably have a feel for the community you are in.
You might have some say in how the tower looks. I say might because there are almost always other landowners that would be quite happy to receive the rent that you would otherwise receive. If you try to dictate too much the company could go elsewhere. At the very least it is reasonable to ask for landscaping and fencing that hides the base station equipment. Asking for a stealth tower will only work if no one else will lease space to them, or if the municipality 'demands' it. Stealth towers cost an arm, leg and three vital organs (and have maintenance issues), so they are seldom used if the carrier can avoid it.
It is very important to know if the developer has carriers that are already interested or if he is developing on speculation. Building on speculation usually looks bad to a zoning board (rightfully so) and will engender hostile feelings if there is any community opposition (much more then a carrier supported build).
I hope that helps some. If you have any more specific questions post them as responses to this post and I will try to get to them before the end of the week.
Mod parent up! (Score:1)
Paul B.
Re:Um (Score:2)
Re:Um (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a Verizon site on the top of Barton Hall on Cornell's campus, and there's basically no way anyone who doesn't know it's there and is looking for it can see the antennas - They're sector antennas on the sides of a cupola painted the same color as the building. Plus in that particular case they're dwarfed by the amateur radio club's monster HF Yagi.
Re:Um (Score:2)
Cornell is a real pain to work with and I had a tight deadline to get the Ithaca system up and running. Barton tower is a better site (it provides a more even distribution of capacity between the sectors), but you do what you can.
Re:Um (Score:2)
Although you're right about the fact that they do look better than high tension lines, I personally like the towers that are made to look like trees of the area.
radio interference (Score:3, Interesting)
Would a tower somewhere on your property be better or worse? Dunno. Maybe you should take your car and some gear to someone else's cell tower and see if it causes interference.
Re:radio interference (Score:2)
Re:radio interference (Score:2)
It ma
Re:radio interference (Score:2)
CDMA (Verizon, Alltel, Sprint, US Cellular) uses a channel approx. 1.25MHz wide that, I believe, handsets transmit on constantly while on a a call. In this context CDMA refers to Qualcomm's cellular solution CDMA; CDMA can also refer to the much more abstract concept of code division multiple access [wikipedia.org]. Many other technologies, like 802.11b, V
TDMA (time division) [wikipedia.org] based technologies (TDMA: AT&T/Cingular; GS
Re:radio interference (Score:2)
Re:radio interference (Score:1)
Re:radio interference (Score:2)
Re:radio interference (Score:2)
You'll get comments about "Well
And health issues? (Score:2, Insightful)
Mark
Re:And health issues? (Score:3)
You get far more exposure to radiation from using a cellphone than you do from living near a cell tower.
It's R-Squared, stupid. You are a few centimeters from the phone and at least 30m from the tower. The tower just doesn't put out enough power to make a sizable impact on your exposure.
Re:And health issues? (Score:2)
True. However, you get even more radiation by stepping out into the sun. Roughly 1000 watts/square meter in direct sunlight. Granted, most of it's in the visible light region, but you'll probably get more overall radio/microwave energy from the sun than you will from the tower 30 meters away. (Remember, it's not confined to a few well-defined channels.)
Re:And health issues? (Score:1)
Re:And health issues? (Score:2)
Re:And health issues? (Score:2)
I've wondered that myself - there's a cell tower just outside the back of my employer's building. I've been here for almost 5 years, and so far haven't noticed any adverse health effects, butI have noticed something else - FM radio reception here is terrible - anyone know if this could be related to the nearby cell tower? I can't compare reception before and after, as the tower's been here all along.
FM Reception (Score:2)
Most of the frequencies used for cell phones are in the upper UHF and lower microwave bands, from 850 Mhz to 1.8Ghz around here. By the
Is the juice worth the squeeze? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Diminished property values are a good thing for people who don't plan to move any time in the near future. Lower property values = lower property taxes. Considering that this is a commercial property, he shouldn't give a rat's arse about "property values."
"If you've got neighbors, they'll hate you for it."
These are the same neighbors who also complain that their cell phones get poor reception. NIMBY doesn't quite cut it: these people are BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). Luckily, they can't tell you what to do, and aren't likely your customers. They're not an issue at all.
"You'd have to give me a boat load of cash to even consider it"
Lots of land owners, even residential ones, lease plots of land to cell towers. They pay you a large monthly sum for the privilage, and usually throw in free cell phones. I'd say it's quite reasonable.
Re:Yes (Score:2)
Actually, I'm guessing you don't own a house -- you just like to lecture people who do.
Re:Is the juice worth the squeeze? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is the juice worth the squeeze? (Score:2)
Re:Is the juice worth the squeeze? (Score:2)
actually, if you wanted perfect reception while tied to a wire, you could probobly do that without them building a cell tower...just use a real phone.
Re:Is the juice worth the squeeze? (Score:2)
Re:Is the juice worth the squeeze? (Score:2)
Next 50 times he asks me for a favor, I'm saying yes.
do it. (Score:2)
Do it (Score:2)
If your building is sufficiently distant from the tower, you need not worry much about cancer or interference. Just don't go any closer to it than you have to. There are laws that prevent them from putting it too close to where people go, and there will be sufficient warning signs near the base.
At the same time though, get your money's
Some information I found on this topic (Score:2)
Dan Bricklin [danbricklin.com] had two interesting log entries (1 [danbricklin.com]), (2 [danbricklin.com]) on this topic.
There are pages at the FCC website here [fcc.gov] and here [fcc.gov] on RF safety considerations.
Find towers near you. [cellreception.com]
Truly bizarre plots (Score:2)
I have never seen the term "org" used to describe something that "trains" outside of the realm of Scientology. And now that I've seen that connection, the unfounded paranoia makes sense...well, as much sense as Scientology makes...
Go for it, if you can get it. (Score:1)
Re:Go for it, if you can get it. (Score:2)
It can cost in the range of $300000-$500000 to build a cell site. How many $50/month, unlimited airtime customers does it take to pay for that?
They need to be convinced about the ROI before they start building.
Re:Go for it, if you can get it. (Score:1)
We lease out space for a tower (Score:3, Informative)
It is understood that the cell phone company pays a hefty sum of money every month to my company because we own the property.
I think the lease just covers or offsets our power and water bill.
Seriously Dude (Score:4, Funny)
You can always take it down when you have to deal with a client who has no sense of humor. Buy a picture of a pretty flower to replace it with.
Re:Seriously Dude (Score:1)
Issues regarding cell towers (Score:4, Informative)
As far as health issues go, the only possible health issue I can reasonably see is that the tower crashes down on you during an extreme windstorm, and proper engineering will mitigate this risk to the point of being negligible. The amount of RF transmitted by a cell site is on a par with a police radio or other mobile radio service. The fact that the antennas are located a couple hundred feet up in the air means that in reality, that police radio in the cop car behind you is pumping more RF into you than the cell site you are directly under.
The fact is, a properly located cell site will improve coverage for its customers, and can actually reduce exposure to RF. How can that be? Most modern cell phones adjust the power level of their transmitters based on the quality of the link they have to the best receive site in the area. I actually notice that my cell phone's battery needs recharging more if you are using it in an area of poor coverage, even if just in standby mode. A good cell site nearby reduces the power that the handset needs to maintain the link, reducing RF exposure to the user.
As far as interference to services you may be using inside your facility, you might want to find out from the cell site operator what frequencies, power levels, and duty cycles they will be transmitting at. This applies not only for cell phones, but for other services that may piggyback onto the tower as well, a tower in a good location will often have antennas strung up the side of it as well. These other radio services might include paging, public safety radio services, amateur radio repeaters and digipeaters, FM broadcast radio transmitters, etc. If you do sensitive testing of radars or something of that ilk, it would pay you to know what is up there.
In conclusion, I wouldn't be afraid to do it, as long as there is nothing up on the tower that would directly interfere with what you are doing now. Leasing space for cell sites is a profitable business around here, the local Volunteer Fire Dept receives about $12,000 a year to lease a 30 by 30 foot space to Verizon, and this is a very common arrangement. Besides the money, you might be able to write the lease to get services of your own on the tower, such as dispatch radios if you are in a service business, set up data links to remote offices, etc. Finally, another benefit might be the ability to use the services directly. Reliable 2 way radio services and WiFi internet access provided on that tower could actually enhance your operation. You may be able to make an arrangement for discounts on these services they may provide.
No interference that I know of ... (Score:1)
There's a tower behind out house . . . (Score:1)
. . . and they use a road on our property to get to it. That's the only access road to the tower, and we've worked out a deal with them to allow them to use our land.
The biggest problem I've noticed is that a cell phone tower is never finished. It's not an uncommon sight to see several trucks go by in front of our house, headed for the tower. Some of these trucks are massive--I'm not sure what they are, but I do know they're massive enough to cause damage to the blacktop they drove over. Imagine the tr