Know how to tell who's building a new cell tower?

poadeleted21

poadeleted21

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Aug 18, 2011
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Our cell service here is crap. I bought a booster and it does OK importing 3G data into the house. Just up the road I noticed a sign where they were notifying people that they were proposing to build a tower there. Since there's like 2 people who live within 4 miles of it, I didn't expect much of a fight. Especially since the land is currently in a spot that can't even get power. Anyway, I looked it up online, it appears that "American Tower" is building, to which I discovered they build quite a few towers. I would really like to know if this is a Verizon LTE tower, or if it's AT&T or something… I'll swap phone providers. Please let it be LTE!! I run my intarwebz off my cell phone.

So, anybody know where to go, or who to call that would tell me who they're building the tower for?
 
You might try antennasearch.com. But that may just give you the same info you already have.
 
bartmc said:
I believe that is where I learned that it was "American Tower" building it.
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AT builds and operates towers for all the major carriers. They may not all be on the same tower, but often you will find cabinets from more than one carrier at the bottom of the tower.
 
Looks like it has a good contact number, I wonder if they would disclose who will be serviced off tower?
 
Flymeariver said:
Looks like it has a good contact number, I wonder if they would disclose who will be serviced off tower?
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I might give them a call tomorrow just to see.

The funny thing is, we're considering buying the adjacent land to us and thought about offering it up to the cell folks to see if they wanted to put in a tower back in the back of it. As we were discussing this, I noticed the sign and stopped to read it.
 
I hear the lease offer to site a cell tower on your property is pretty sweet. Something like $1200-$1600/month and 3 free cell phone accounts. Might want to give them a call.
 
Slightly off-topic, but here on Georgetown Island the cellular reception is hit or miss. The lay of the land is such that reception may drop out depending where one happens to be on the roadways. It used to be even worse. There was a out-of-state(not uncommon around here) fellow in the process of building a vacation house. Apparently, he was a business exec. who, when on vacation, can't stay away from business. While visiting the state-of-progress of the estate he became quite upset about the bad cell phone coverage. So he made some noise. Within weeks there were a couple new cell phone towers in service. It probably didn't hurt that he was/is an executive with one of the big cellular companies(though I don't know which one). Those two towers don't help all this island's territories, however.

HR
 
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Most carriers collocate on towers, so it's doubtful you will have just one present. The local landline company will have orders for circuits to bring the wireless traffic back to the carrier's office, unless they plan on using microwave to back haul. If it's the latter, then they'll need a license for the MW. If it's the former, only the landline company will know who's occupying the tower. Local sales people should know that a new site is coming, assuming their area manager is plugged in, so you may want to ask at their retail store.
 
vfrfellow said:
This. I used to issue those permits. Call the planner.
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Did you ever deal with anyone but 'American Tower' or 'Billybob and Marjories Tower, LLC' ? I dont think the carriers show up in things like building permits, only in the FCC paperwork.

Otoh, I have seen a sign by the roadside where a carrier was announcing a tower location and asking their customers to go to the planning commission meeting (tower required a variance for placement on Ag property).
 
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WakeNCAgent said:
Most carriers collocate on towers, so it's doubtful you will have just one present. The local landline company will have orders for circuits to bring the wireless traffic back to the carrier's office, unless they plan on using microwave to back haul. If it's the latter, then they'll need a license for the MW. If it's the former, only the landline company will know who's occupying the tower. Local sales people should know that a new site is coming, assuming their area manager is plugged in, so you may want to ask at their retail store.
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The nearest retail store is 40 miles away, not sure he'd be in tune with what's happening out in the swamp. :D
 
Wait out front and ask the site manager when they pull in. Most site managers are friendly normal folk. Alternatively, grab the FCC tower site number off the gate and hunt the FCC database.
 
I just put in a Verizon Network extender. $250. Plugs into broadband connection. Works great. Don't lose calls when I put the phone up to my fat head anymore.
 
jhausch said:
I just put in a Verizon Network extender. $250. Plugs into broadband connection. Works great. Don't lose calls when I put the phone up to my fat head anymore.
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Wouldn't even have cell coverage at home without one, but it's far from flawless in practice. Have a Verizon Home Phone Connect that's blocked from joining the Verizon Extender and positioned in the upstairs room that has the best wimpy coverage as backup. Go back and forth between the two depending on which is misbehaving any particular day.
 
jhausch said:
I just put in a Verizon Network extender. $250. Plugs into broadband connection. Works great. Don't lose calls when I put the phone up to my fat head anymore.
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That would be great but my cell phone is my internet. no broadband out here. that's why i'm crossing my fingers that it's an LTE tower going up.
 
My son worked for American Tower. They put up some towers on speculation, figuring they will lease antenna space to a carrier later.
 
Know the former Ops Director for AT. They're all about having the correct real estate and charging a crap-ton for it. They dumped a lot of bad sites ten years ago and then got a strategy going to only buy stuff they knew cell companies would need. Various mergers and what-not later, it's a grudge match between them and Global Signal.
 
bartmc said:
That would be great but my cell phone is my internet. no broadband out here. that's why i'm crossing my fingers that it's an LTE tower going up.
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Oh.. OK.. That's certainly a different situation.

Have you looked into a cell repeater and external antenna? I think Jerry (radiokaos) can make recommendations.
 
If your cell phone service improves after the tower is completed, that will answer your question, I think.
 
jhausch said:
Oh.. OK.. That's certainly a different situation.

Have you looked into a cell repeater and external antenna? I think Jerry (radiokaos) can make recommendations.
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A simple bda package might work well for the op


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
radiokaos said:
A simple bda package might work well for the op


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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The only way I can get cell serivice is by using a repeater. I have a Wilson something (DB Pro I think) I got off amazon. Works fairly well, I still need to move the exterior antenna to the other side of the house to get rid of the feedback or whatever. Hoping this new tower will allow me to continue to be lazy and not have to do that :)
 
Flymeariver said:
Have you found out which carrier the tower is for yet?
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Yeah, I called the number on the FCC application for American Tower and the lady called me back and said it was AT&T. They've got it about halfway up now. Is quite a project. My house is the last house that has power service and so they had to run a couple of miles worth of electrical lines just to power the thing.
 
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