A Tale of Two Carriers, T-Mobile burns past Sprint

August 24, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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You have all heard about the race for #3 and the drop to #4. T-Mobile is the solid #3 while Sprint is the solid #4. T-Mobile seems to be heading forward while Sprint seems to be falling hard. Sprint has so much debt while T-Mobile is building the dense network that Sprint talked about. You know about the race, but let’s look at how they got here and where they appear to be headed. Not only in coverage and the network, but in general.

Sprint cried WOLF one too many times!

First, you have Sprint, who is the carrier who cried wolf only to sit back and do nothing. By wolf, I mean Next Generation Network, (NGN)! Here was their chance to build the new network that would be the building block for LTE with an amazing LTE backbone that would deploy a mix of small cells and smaller macro sites to densify coverage. Then it was called the densification project, where they would put smaller sites everywhere. While they are working on this to put sites closer to the people, it has less to do with technology and more to do with getting off towers to save money.

Maybe by wolf you thought it was the 70,000 small cell roll-out, again, another made up story to drive prices down so that they can save money on those few hundred deployments. Then the partnership with Mobilitie to roll out sites in Right of Way, (ROW), as a CLEC, (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier), a lot like Softbank did in Japan. How is that going? I hear not so well and slow. If anything, it set the rest of the carriers back on any deployments as municipalities appear to be very angry. So angry that they’re changing the rules where they can so it can’t happen again. It seems like Sprint is running with scissors and falling repeatedly. They create quite a buzz! However, I feel like they rev the engine to impress everyone at the starting line, but when it comes time to race, they put it in gear and the car stalls, going nowhere. Maybe they are looking at it like a marathon, thinking they have more time, but do they?

I will give Sprint credit for creativity. They still seem to be determined to get out of as many large tower company leases that they can with the densification deployment where they will install poles in “Right of Way” areas. We’ll see what happens but the tower owners don’t appear to be worried. I would guess because they have those iron-clad leases to hold Sprint in for 8 to 10 years. Let’s face it, they are in no hurry. Good thing for Sprint the rest of the carriers see that it actually is a good idea to lower lease rates. I already hear AT&T and Verizon are looking into lease reduction. Not good for American Tower, Crown Castle, and SBC. However, it’s hard to leave the big tower boys for 3 reasons: 1) iron clad 10 year leases with no out clause, 2) they bought all of the carriers towers and own many more, 3) where else will the carriers go. Let’s face it, townships, cities, and municipalities made it easy for the large tower companies to take over with all the restrictions on new towers, but I digress, let’s get back on topic.

Sprint has real problems, which Bloomberg lays out, that means heavy debt. So what is Softbank doing? Maybe they want Sprint to figure it out themselves, perhaps because they could not buy T-Mobile, or may Sprint was in worse shape than expected. Maybe they plan to let Sprint o go into bankruptcy to rebuild, which I hope never happens. I give them credit, they did a lot of creative financing to get by this year’s (2016) debt, which looks to be $4B, yes, four billion dollars. If Marcelo Claure can pull this off, then he deserves a bonus, of course there won’t be one because it went to pay the debt, am I right? Congratulations to Sprint, they may be #4 in the network, reliability, and coverage, but they are #1 in debt, that’s a reason to celebrate, right, #1 in something!

This is a carrier who appears to be on the decline, no matter how cheap they sell airtime they just can’t catch up. It is going to be hard to catch up with no money and running the network on a shoestring budget. I know I sound negative hear, but I really hope Sprint turns it around for the sake of the industry. Hey, they could become a paging company, they can run the network much more cost effectively that this LTE network, just a thought. They have plenty of 2.5GHz spectrum which they need to roll out and make money on, if not in their network, then lease it or sell it, let’s see it work for you, not flounder.

I will give Sprint credit, they are doing all that they can with what they have. However, the limitations that are holding them back will cost them more money in the near future. They are slow, if not last, to move to VoLTE, that means that they need to maintain the CDMA network past 2020, which will cost them more money to run a network that is more expensive to maintain and may be “end of life”, (EOL), by 2020 if not before. It costs more money to maintain multiple technologies, especially end of life technologies. CDMA specifically because the equipment is usually made specific to each carrier, it’s hard to buy equipment like that off of Ebay!

What about T-Mobile?

Then you have T-Mobile, who not only is investing, and improving the network but they are also becoming a threat to #2 in an amazing way. They are pushing out LTE and improving speeds and they have an amazing marketing machine. If they could tap dance then they would be a triple threat! I am sure Legere can dance, but he is waiting for the right time, like when they pass AT&T to become #2.

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Here is where that company not only put their money where John Legere’s mouth was, they showed up to the party with results! You heard me, they have an amazing marketing machine that pushed their message in your face they offered no contracts, they gave you a great price and some free”Binge-On” data. Then what did they do? They kicked the LTE deployment into high gear and pushed great performing LTE out to the public for their customers to see what a real network can do. They didn’t just upgrade their home city, like Sprint did in Kansas City, T-Mobile concentrated on the most of the urban areas to show that they can build a kick ass, dense network where the people are. What an amazing feat! They are now on par with Verizon, who we all have the perception is the best network. While Sprint was talking the talk, T-Mobile was walking the walk, showing the competition that it can be done without all of the hype.

Let’s not forget that T-Mobile was the first to really push Wi-Fi voice calls, and they made it work. The found ways to improve the in-home coverage with their Femto cells that they handed out to customers. They constantly look for ways to improve the network. Now, they do it as cheap as they can, they aren’t going to pay top dollar if they don’t have to, but they are continuing to make the push. While they don’t like the DAS model, they will live with it if they have to. You see, they realize that bandwidth and coverage are important. They don’t seem to be in a hurry to build out the rural areas yet, I guess they don’t see a big pay back at this time.

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If T-Mobile can come from #4 with such a push that they can become #3, why can’t they become #2? This is the perfect time to do it because AT&T seems more worried about their DirecTV purchase than they do about improving the network on a nationwide basis. That’s OK, they figure their good enough and will probably maintain the LTE network until 5G comes out. I am thinking that T-Mobile could push for #2, but they would have to build more rural sites. I am not sure what their goal is right now except to improve the network and have bragging rights on speed. Maybe that is enough, to make Verizon look over their shoulder and to catch AT&T watching TV while T-Mobile pushed ahead quickly and impressively.

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

T-Mobile wants to sunset 3G quickly, they want VoLTE to be the voice of choice, they want data to rule. They understand how expensive it is to maintain legacy hardware and a legacy network that will soon be EOL. The sooner they can be all LTE, they can shut down the 2G and 3G networks, then they will be saving more money.I would bet Sprint engineers want to do this, but budgets won’t allow it so they still deploying 3G. That is my opinion. 3G vendors will capitalize on maintaining older products like they have done in the past.

You may think that I favor T-Mobile, but the facts are the facts. T-Mobile is moving ahead and making things happen. They are improving and they make good decisions. I wish them well and I hope they make a serious run for #2. It appears that with Legere at the helm, that may be possible.

To sum it up:

I actually thought Sprint was going to build the NGN network. I thought that they would move ahead and be a leader in the industry. Look how wrong I was! T-Mobile is really the carrier to watch, they really want the #1 spot which is giving them the momentum to push into #2. I hope they can do it because we all love the underdog, right? Their timing is great because they are catching AT&T watching TV instead of the wireless network and the only money Sprint is spending is on new commercials. Another thing to give T-Mobile is that they know how to make viral videos, which is free advertising, again, Legere’s marketing is amazing. I am becoming a fan of this guy.

Good luck T-Mobile, this industry needs a good shake up. You passed Sprint with flying colors, now it’s time for a real test. Can you do it? Can you spearhead right through AT&T into the #2 position? I don’t know but I am rooting for you to push them hard. Good luck!

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What is the 5G Business Plan?

August 19, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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I have heard a lot about 5G and the roll out and how small cells will boom with 5G. Let’s look at the facts, if 5G is in the millimeter wave spectrum, then they will be very small and very line of site networks.

How is this going to work? Are the carriers really going to rely on 28GHz, (here in the USA), to cover much more that a building or a street? They are complaining about putting up small cells and CRAN because of the fiber and rental fees, and the slow payback! It’s catching on now and there is a better business plan, but will it be enough at 28GHz?

What I don’t’ get is that they are all doing amazing research and getting awesome speeds, but to me, someone who has done point to point (PTP) microwave, it is not a surprise. If you only have 2 or 3 users, of course you can get kick ass speeds in a high spectrum with lots of bandwidth that is not shared. At home, when I am the only one on my Wi-Fi hot spot, the cable modem is the bottleneck, not the Wi-Fi, however, when I am in an airport using the free Wi-Fi with 100 other people, I have no idea where the bottleneck is unless I can’t connect, then I am sure it is the Wi-Fi. It happens all the time.

So let’s look at the business model. Do you really see AT&T and Verizon building a network for 10 people? Let me put it to you this way, when you want to put a small cell in your building for 10 users, will AT&T or Verizon run out and give you one? I will tell you from experience, the answer is no, but they will let you buy one but it’s very small. Now, if I want to put something in for 100 users, will they do it. Again, the answer is no, and now because you want a bigger small cell or 2 of them, they won’t even talk to you because they are afraid of how it will affect the network. I get it, but now let’s think about how they will deploy 5G, will it really be for the mobile user? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Now, let’s look at fixed wireless, here is an awesome application. One that you need LOS, (line of site), but you have the spectrum and the ability to put a small cell near people’s homes. This is where I see it as a great asset. This would be great and finally would give some wireless competition to the Cable modem.

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So for fixed wireless it looks like an awesome solution, but they have to make it work for the mobile device somehow.

The reason I am not so positive, because let’s look at path loss. At 200 meters there is a lot of free space loss here.

Frequency	Distance (Meters)	Tx Output (dB)	Rx Gain (dB)	Free Space Loss (dB)
600MHz	200	40	3	31.02
700MHz	200	40	3	32.68
1.9GHz	200	40	3	41.04
2.4GHz	200	40	3	43.06
2.5GHz	200	40	3	43.42
5.8GHz	200	40	3	50.73
24GHz	200	40	3	63.06
28GHz	200	40	3	64.4
38GHz	200	40	3	67.06
60GHz	200	40	3	71.02
70GHz	200	40	3	72.36

The reason I added the chart is to show the high loss you have at the higher bands. Now, while the number looks like it is double the loss, it is actually more than that. For every 3dB you lose 1.2 of your power, literally, lose half of your power.

Take a look at this chart showing power in Watts compared to power in dBm, pay attention! It helps put it into perspective. I like to look at watts because it is easy for the field engineer to see loss in power.

Power (dBm)	Power (W)
-30 dBm	0.0000010 W
-20 dBm	0.0000100 W
-10 dBm	0.0001000 W
0 dBm	0.0010000 W
1 dBm	0.0012589 W
2 dBm	0.0015849 W
3 dBm	0.0019953 W
6 dBm	0.0039811 W
9 dBm	0.0079433 W
10 dBm	0.0100000 W
20 dBm	0.1000000 W
30 dBm	1.0000000 W
40 dBm	10.0000000 W
50 dBm	100.0000000 W

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We need to understand what the application will be for 5G to be successful. Let’s face it, LTE would not have taken off without the demand for bandwidth. What caused demand for wireless bandwidth? You could say the laptop, but you know it’s really the smartphone, specifically the iPhone that changed the wireless world. Now we can’t live without it and even the president, (Obama) says it’s a necessity. Link is at the bottom so you know that I’m not making this up.

So how do we make money? The carriers will come up with something, but the mobility factors seems quite limited. The fixed wireless aspect makes a lot of sense to me, but if we can get 10Gbps to our mobile device, I am all for it, but who will pay for the backhaul? Latency is very important, so they have to bring the computing to the edge, NFV and SDN will be a huge part of 5G. The latency has to be low and then the bandwidth will not be as critical, right?

Who will win in 5G?

We have all heard about 5G, the next big thing, for the carriers anyway. Will it really be all what we think it can be? Super high bandwidth with awesome applications? Who will win the 5G race?

The way I see it Verizon Wireless and AT&T will win, or at least be there first. They invested heavy, they are working to put out real standards, and they really want to win. This is something that the other carriers seem to be playing with but not taking as seriously. Sure, they all say they are working on 5G and I am sure they have something in a lab with high bandwidth in the 28GHz range, or somewhere up there, to test these applications. That way the investors are happy along and the public is impressed. I mean we all want to see virtual reality happen very soon from a wireless device, right?

Verizon seems to be working hard on the technical standards and the testing of the network.

AT&T seems to be finding ways to use it and testing it as well.

While I see that Sprint and T-Mobile are looking at it and testing in labs, they probably are in no hurry to lay out a lot of money just yet. They may wait to see what standard will be adopted then take the money they saved and use it to build a network, or expand what they have. I hope they are planning for this future. In all honesty T-Mobile is doing a great job of laying the ground work for high speeds while Sprint, well, Sprint doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything for the future.

Will 5G be a Failure?

So will it succeed? The issue that I see right now is not the technology, the loading, the multiple access, but really the spectrum. How far can millimeter waves go? How many connections can 28GHz or whatever band they’re in, can it serve? How large of an area can it really serve? We all look to small cells or CRAN to perform here, but will there be a payback. Can the carriers make a play for fixed wireless or will they try to capitalize on dense networks? Can they make the dense network business model work? Does it have to be a carrier to build this or can it be a smaller business who could tie back into another company’s core? Will they need a mobile core or can it start to replace fiber? Remember, there were so many microwave hops connecting broadband when fiber was not so readily available.

I don’t think that the question of 5G is fair, to be honest, its more like, “Will Millimeter Wave be a failure?” Isn’t that the big question here? The elephant in the room, so to speak. Can mm-wave perform the way that today’s spectrum does? Can it go beyond PTP?

The real winner will be the fiber backhaul companies, they will offer maximum bandwidth, chances are it will be dark fiber dedicated to the carriers, one more expense the carriers to look at before deployment. This will be the big cost just like now. Sorry cable companies, but the cable modem may not be able to service such a huge capacity. Fi they really do virtual reality, they will need to get to the edge for low latency and have a lot of bandwidth and the devices will need to maintain connectivity. Or will they?

What is the plan?

Maybe this is where the devices will need to take a step forward again, like the iPhone. Then the networks pushed LTE out so that high-speed data could get the devices reliable. Then devices added more and more memory to improve it once again. This is where the 5G miracle may happen. The devices will really need to make another quantum leap. The way I see it is that the networks will dump data fast in large chunks for high bandwidth applications and the device will need to capture and process that data. The app will rest in the device and the device must take the data and break it down. We are doing this now with applications in our smart phones and tablets, but they need to be the edge, they need to process it all quickly and they need to be able to connect and accept data quickly and efficiently all while processing it for the application.

I really the think that the edge has to push farther out, so that the cloud will extend farther. I know they talk about fog computing, where the edge is at the end, this is what will really push the network. Hop after hop, so that the computing is done so close to the device that it may be in the device itself. Will there be awesome high-speed kick ass wireless devices that 10 other devices can connect to? I hope so. Will fixed wireless take over the world? I hope so. What are you hoping for, other than a bunch more work in deployment?

One thing that could hold it back is that the carriers do NOT want to replace their networks. They have LTE in as the foundation, they do not want to do another fork lift upgrade. They want to just keep making minor updates until it completely maxed out. They are counting on LTE to push them well past 2020. When we all see 5G released in 2020, it will be on the back of LTE, which technically is still 4G but by then it should be on serious steroids.

One other thing, the carriers do not want to give up their dominance. They intend to rule the wireless world well into 2030. So when the FCC has auctions, they will spend billions. Just look at how much spectrum AT&T is sitting on, you think they would roll it out soon.

Just a few ideas, but worth thinking about.

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So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

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Does IOT need Wireless?

August 10, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Hell yeah! Don’t get me wrong, you could use CAT 5 to connect most of this stuff, but the idea is to have the equipment everywhere and talking all the time, or at least when we need to. They need to be wireless controlled for it to work properly and to be autonomous. What fun would a drone be if you needed to have a copper line connected to it. The FCC laid out their plan to sunset copper lines. I did a lot of work on them but I won’t miss them because wireless is so cool! If you like copper so much, then put that smartphone down and use a landline, if you can find one.

So, back to IOT, (Internet of Things), they rely on wireless connections for more than convenience. This is how the machine to machine, M2M, really take off. Whether it’s to control valves for a water company or to read your electric meter or to control natural gas flow, you need to have connectivity everywhere. We just need to define what that connectivity will be. It could be the standard carrier networks, LTE really. That is going to be key for so much of this. But most of these systems will need much less bandwidth.

Small data networks, that sounds crazy, right? NOT! You see the new networks are built for larger packets, so they are so inefficient, and too expensive, for a simple command to open or close a valve. LTE and Wi-Fi seem like overkill for these applications, although they are everywhere and the most convenient to work with, especially Wi-Fi, it’s in your house and would be a great way for your smart home full of IOT devices to talk to your smartphone and the real world.

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That is why the LTE format may not be the best for IOT, although it would be everywhere so by default it may be the technology of choice.

So how will wireless IOT work?

They need something for outdoor communication like LoRa, the low-bandwidth system. There is a LoRa alliance, https://www.lora-alliance.org/ if you want to read more about what they are up to. Another good article on LoRa is at http://postscapes.com/long-range-wireless-iot-protocol-lora/ where they go into detail about how it works. What they explain is that they are planning to use the spectrum that is left behind, with smaller bandwidth. They way the Semtech chip works is that they utilize spectrum that is sub giga-hertz, like 109MHz, 433MHz, 866MHz, and 915MHz where they have smaller amounts of spectrum. They need to stay away from the license free spectrum because it might interfere.

There is another format called SigFox for outdoor communication. Again, made for very small packets of data. I found information at http://www.link-labs.com/what-is-sigfox/ if you want more information but here is what I got out of it. They are using the 915MHz spectrum (ISM band license free), using 2 types of Phase Shift Keying, PSK. This supposedly will help get the data through the noise. I am not sure what the coverage would be for something like this but I would bet its very limited. This is a low power, wide area, (LPWA) network. A good article on SigFox is here, http://www.networkworld.com/article/3029253/internet-of-things/how-sigfox-plans-to-spread-its-low-power-iot-network-across-the-u-s.html if you want to learn how they plan to deploy. I am told that they already have several deployments in the USA, although I don’t know of any personally.

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Now, for the smart home, inside a building, or the smart office, you could use Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, or something proprietary. We all know Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, right? It’s on your smartphones and in your homes. What we don’t know if ZigBee and Z-Wave.

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What is ZigBee for IOT? Well, according to the ZigBee alliance at http://www.zigbee.org/what-is-zigbee/ it is a wireless language that is used to connect devices, which is such a generic explanation that I could use for any wireless protocol. Come on!

So I went into Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee where they give a much better explanation. It is line of site, LOS, and very short-range. It works in the ISM band, just like Wi-Fi, (2.4GHz in most countries but also in 915MHz in USA and Australia, 784MHz in China, 868MHz in Europe). The data rate is very small, remember I said smaller packets are all you need? This is made for very small and efficient bursts of data. They also support mesh networking. Mesh means that the devices not only connect to the hub but they can repeat the signal to each other forming a mesh. This is a great way to extend coverage if you don’t need massive bandwidth.

What is Z-Wave for IOT? Z-Wave takes ZigBee and makes some enhancements. It specifically works in the 908.42GHz range in the USA and 868.42MHz band in Europe. For a great explanation go to http://www.smarthome.com/sc-what-is-zwave-home-automation but its made for very small networks in the home. Find more at http://www.z-wave.com/ but I haven’t heard much more on this except that they have a version that will work with the Apple iWatch.

As you can see there are many technologies to roll out the IOT format. I don’t really know if there is a clear winner but I think it depends on the need. The wireless backhaul will come down to a chip they add to the device based on need, coverage, and cost. I could see someone using all of the technologies in a device to get the coverage they need, like maybe utility meters. That would make sense because it would be a one-time up front cost. However, for the in home stuff, cheap is what they need. I seriously don’t see people putting in a new network in their homes if they don’t have to but many companies will say you need a “hub” which will be the special format switch that their devices will, in theory, talk to the Wi-Fi in their homes. I already see it but it looks like they want to sell more devices in the home. So maybe high-end stuff will need the hub. I could see the hub as another line of defense in security, where if someone hacks your Wi-Fi and/or cable router then they would need to get by another device to get to your thermostat or light switches.

However, for an outdoor network I could see a dedicated network taking off for several reasons, cost reliability, and security. It costs money to pay the carrier a fee every month when you have a small low data device on it when you could put one of the cheaper hotspots in a space to connect your devices. Again, it really comes down to cost and reliability. Many will say they want security, but how secure can they really be?

A few more articles that may interest you:

http://pages.silabs.com/rs/silabs/images/Wireless-Connectivity-for-IoT.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoguKjNZKXonjHpfsX86%2B4rWKK3lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DSsJkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTLPBMbNsz7gOXBg%3D

http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-protocols/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPWAN

http://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/internet-of-things/

https://www.micrium.com/iot/devices/

http://www.networkcomputing.com/internet-things/10-leaders-internet-things-infrastructure/1612927605

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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The Wireless Deployment Bundle!

August 7, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Announcement!

The Wireless Deployment Bundle ready for release!

Do you need some help getting started in the wireless deployment business? If you’re looking to work on macro sites or on small cells and DAS systems, then get some help here. This isn’t for everyone, just groups that are serious about wireless deployment. I will add my new book about deployment efficiencies to this package when it’s released later this year.

This bundle includes Wade4Wireless.com books about deployment and tower work. This should cover most of your wireless deployment needs for knowledge. I am here to help you get a head start and learn from my mistakes. See what works and how to protect yourself in the wireless deployment industry. Small Cells and DAS are really going to make a push so be prepared.

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Set includes:

1) The Wireless Deployment Handbook, the Small Cells, CRAN, and DAS edition.

2) Tower Climbing: An Introduction, eBook and Audio book

3) The Wireless Scope of Work Tutorial video and eBook

4) The field Worker’s Aid for Tower Work

5) The Tower Climbing Logbook, spreadsheet and PDF

All of this in one package for $79.99.

Brought to you by Wade Sarver, who writes for www.wade4wireless.com blog and narrates the Wade4Wireless.com podcast.

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Wireless Carriers State of Affairs Commentary

August 2, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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The carriers seem to be very slow this year on growth, at least wireless network growth. Oh sure, if you talk to them they are growing by leaps and bounds. But if you are in deployment, you are either busy or really slow. It seems like more of the same old work.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have the work that we see and I am grateful for it. I just don’t see much work outside of the carriers like before. The utilities seem to be satisfied with what they have and public safety is still holding their breath for a LTE system that could serve them outside of the carriers. You know, like what we all thought FirstNet would do. They apparently will be the government’s first MVNO. All that spectrum and we might as well wait for the 5G networks to roll out. Way to go FirstNet, you’re LTE system will be deployed along with the latest 5G system. Maybe you want to start the RFP process over again. (Sorry, just frustrated to see something so promising turn out to be late and “business as usual”!)

So where are we with the carriers. Well, Verizon is rolling with the normal growth that we all expect from the # 1 network. They appear to be adding towers and rolling out CRAN/oDAS with the intent to get the biggest bang they can with the spectrum they have. All this while working on a standard for 5G, I mean a real standard, not just lip service. Verizon rolls on with their plan to be the biggest and best. While all the other carriers say they are good enough, Verizon appears to dominate with coverage and reliability, at least that’s what I see.

AT&T seems to be in a hold pattern for wireless. I see them planning a lot but just doing what they have to. I really can’t believe it but from my perspective, they seem to be sending the message that Verizon is the best and we’re good enough. They have a great network and are clearly #2, but the whole DirecTV merger seems to have them more worried about bundling packages than improving the network. They add where they absolutely have to, but other than that, their good enough, right?

Then there is T-Mobile, the #3 carrier who seems to be pretty motivated to catch up to AT&T. This is their big chance with AT&T resting on its current network. I see T-Mobile doing more to roll out and densify the LTE system. They also have a pretty amazing marketing system, seriously, that John Legere looks like a genius from my vantage point. They continue to pump money into the network with improvements, densification, and wireless improvements. They may not catch up to Verizon anytime soon but WOW! They really are pushing the envelope and this is the perfect time to leave #4 in the dust.

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Sprint is the #4 carrier and with the effort they’re putting into expand, it is no surprise to me. They have more spending cuts and are tighter with their money that the Scrooge was before Christmas! I feel bad for the people working there to be buried under all of that debt. I will say one thing, financially they seem to be pulling ahead. However, where will they be in 3 years when they have the only operational CDMA system, and not for nostalgia reasons but because they have to support voice in some way. They should be rolling out VoLTE soon, but will it be too late? If Verizon were smart they would sunset CDMA as soon as possible so that anyone who roams onto their system needs to have VoLTE.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

So what about the tower owners like American Tower, Crown Castle, and SBA? They play a huge part in this. The leases they have and the assets that they have will make them a serious partner in this because the carriers need to pay them a lot of money each month. They have pretty solid leases where companies can’t get out of them no matter what. They tie the carriers into long-term leases. All of this has made them really strong and a good long-term investment. However, some companies, like Sprint are going to do all that they can to reduce the number of leases with their move to roll out the new network on monopoles. I have to admit it’s a cool idea to save money. But let me ask you, what will is cost up front to do this? Is it worth it? Can they really save money by doing this? Will the municipalities and townships allow this? There is more to this than just saving the OpEx, the CapEx may not be worth it. Especially if they have no cash or high debt. Remember how much it costs to move a site? The tower owners know! They bank on that being an issue for the carriers when they set their rates. These guys are smart!

However, this makes it a ripe market for new companies to come in an offer better rates or maybe a disruptor to make a difference in the tower market. If someone could get a few key towers built then they would be ahead of the game, or would they? I have to tell you I personally have been in touch with several companies that wanted to build new towers and when they reached out to the carriers to see if there was interest, guess what the carriers said, N-O as in no. So why build it if they won’t come? So the carriers are shooting themselves in the foot, and I would bet it’s because they just don’t want to deal with the one-off towers. Then they complain about tower lease prices. OK carriers, then make a difference and move ahead with the smaller guys or stop complaining!

Let’s look at one more thing. The new FAA ruling requiring a 50’ tower to have lights in a residential area? Article found here, http://wirelessestimator.com/articles/2016/new-faa-rules-will-require-some-50-to-200-foot-towers-to-be-marked/ in case you don’t believe me. Painting is OK, I get that, but what if they require beacons? I know that the FAA should have one of these beacons near their house, they just made all neighborhood hate having any tower near them because they feel a plane that is 50’ off of the ground should be able to see the pole ahead of them. This is probably for the drones they expect to see but seriously, is the FAA smoking crack? If a drone can’t see the tower, then what? They should watch where they are going. They should not be flying at night. And if a plane is 50’ off of the ground in a residential neighborhood, like mine, I am going to be calling 911 and looking for a crash, seriously.

To digress even more, this is probably because of another report I read, https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2010/May/Met_tower_Power_Point_St._Cloud.pdf. Why do I bring this up? If you look at this PDF, you see that all of the towers are in the middle of a field where the land is very flat. This is a case to put lights on smaller tower when there is absolutely nothing around. Again, for planes flying under 200 feet AGL, like the ultralight (which should be higher than 200’ and not fly over developments) and drones. I think to mandate this nationwide is a bit extreme and they just added a lot of work for approvals for new towers. The way I see it this will stunt tower growth even more, giving the leverage to the large tower companies, so for them it might be a pain to retrofit the towers, but the bigger picture is that they just put another nail in the coffin of startups.

If you though NIMBY was an issue before, get ready for a new line of complaints when people realize they will have to live with a beacon flash outside their window all night long. People complain about street lamps near them, can you imagine a beacon flashing outside of their window.

On the other hand, this should be a good thing for the small cell industry because they generally go on lower poles and could be put anywhere. So now the small cell will literally be right outside their window, at eye level.

All of this makes the tower owners even more powerful and gives them amazing control over the carrier’s destiny.

I have to admit, I am really impressed with Crown Castles investment into the small cell arena and the way that they advanced a single small cell site into multiple small cell and oDAS sites. This really makes them look like they are preparing for the future. They got the fiber and they have the assets. They also seem to have a good plan which puts them in a favorable position. If the carriers want to move away from these leases, then they should not have sold their towers, which they did to pay for the spectrum, right? How is that working out? The old saying, rob Peter to pay Paul, is coming back to haunt them. To be fair, I would have done the same thing, they got a great influx of money, they were able to reduce staff, and they gave them to companies that do tower leasing for a living. Now they need to pay the rent for the rest of their time on the tower.

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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What will 5G networks look like?

July 27, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Here is what I see, the carriers are pretty stubborn to keep the LTE systems in place, they really don’t want to do another network build for another 10 years. Do expect them to improve LTE, which does stand for Long Term Evolution, for another 10 years or so. Luckily they found ways to improve the data rates through aggregation and the FCC is releasing more spectrum. This is great for the carriers who dominate spectrum ownership. Why wouldn’t they when it costs BILLIONs just to attain spectrum. I don’t see many small guys doing much with high bandwidth. Luckily, low-bandwidth is starting to grow, and it really will be part of 5 g.

We have all been hearing about 5G but let’s look at what’s going on. It is not going to be a new transport format for the carriers. I would look at it as an add-on of smaller networks. This gives us a new look at the HetNet, a term we just don’t see enough but it really is the foundation for the networks as we see them today.

I believe that there will be more networks coming out. The FCC is releasing very high spectrum for 5G and Verizon is testing this. The question is how will people attain this spectrum, what will it cost, and so on. Not an issue right now but Verizon did set a standard which they would like to see approved. I give them a lot of credit for doing real testing and setting real standards for something that may happen before 2020, the original date we thought we would see it.

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This is where IOT and 5G should merge, they should be working together as a system. However, the IOT may not be the heavy bandwidth hitter we thought it would be. Instead it will be like it always was for Machine to Machine, M2M. Think of SCADA systems. SCADA, Supervisory Data Control and Data Acquisition. Utilities have been using them for years, only they called them SCADA. Now with the new low-bandwidth networks coming out they may be able to start using new services if they are secure enough. They really seem to like the 3.5GHz WiMAX systems because they owned them, but WiMAX didn’t work as well as they had hoped. So not they are looking for a new way to handle these low-bandwidth needs. This is technically IOT, but wouldn’t it be 5G?

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

The 5G network will be faster and build out in smaller networks. The 5G network will still utilize much of the 4G network, but mostly as a means to connect. LTE will continue to get faster and grown. Most of what you hear about is the high bandwidth usage, like virtual reality and the cars that will drive for us. This is all part of it but the network needs to be built out properly and reliably. Latency has to be very low, so the cloud will matter. How? This is what NFV, network function virtualization, and SDN, Software-Defined Networking, come into play. The process needs to be taken to the edge, as close to the user as possible to lower the latency.

So the 5G network will bring the network out to the end-user. With the higher spectrum it will be a very small network. The wireless will not be the only factor; the servers will need to be as close to the edge as possible

The 5G will have a fast wireless format.
It may also a server close to the edge. It will need to keep latency as low as possible.
The networking and routing will need to be very nimble and change very quickly.
Low latency will be the key.
Hi throughput will matter for some apps.
Low throughput will need low latency.

https://youtu.be/XFjmrzw-9EM

Here is some food for thought. I put these very simple drawings together hoping it may show you how the network could look.

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Scope of Work tutorial for the contractor to keep both sides doing the right thing for payment.

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Jim Grasty of ALLTEC Talks about Lightning and Surge Protection!

July 18, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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On today’s show I learned so much about lightning protection and surge protection. How do you protect your equipment from lightning, from surges? What about all the little surges that kill your equipment over time? I have the surge protection answer man, Jim Grasty, on the podcast to tall us some real world stories and give us solutions. Planning is the key, the more you do up front the better chance you have to not only increase your uptime but save money in the long run. Most companies seem to want to save money up front only to spend carelessly on maintenance. Well, I am getting ahead of myself, sorry, I am just excited to bring this to you.

So who is Jim Grasty and ALLTEC? Well, Mr. Grasty’s global business experience, as well as over thirty years in engineering and product design/development, has provided a solid basis for the successful completion of numerous critical projects requiring lightning protection, surge suppression and grounding site surveys, engineering studies and reports, and lightning risk analyses. In addition to his training, planning and supervision responsibilities, he has led over a hundred surveys and designs for lightning protection and electrostatic hazard mitigation in flammable environments. His research and technical coordination of product/design capabilities to achieve site specific lightning and electrostatic protection goals has provided state of the art implementations and assurance to diverse facilities world-wide.

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Now, who is ALLTEC? That is the company that can give you end to end solutions for not only lightning protection, but surge protection in general. It’s not just about the big surges, it is about the breakdown of equipment over time. Now that we have fiber on the tower, it helps, but we are still bringing larger copper power lines down the tower and into the shelter as well as power in from the street. All of this could lead to disaster without the proper grounding and protection. ALLTECis a company that can provide your specific solution no matter what it may be. They provide you with the best solution for protection, they take all information into consideration when building a plan for you. Price may be an issue, so make it clear what your budget is and what your needs are. Also, think about your maintenance budget because what you spend up front may save you more money down the line. Proper planning could save you a lot of money down the road.

Lightning protection is a big deal, for those of you that do it you know what effort goes into protecting a tower site. Getting the 5 ohms to ground is quite a feat sometime. But, what happens when a data center takes a hit? Think it doesn’t happen, well, Jim brings up the story of a Google data center that got hit and wiped them out, the story can be found here. It was in Belgium and really disrupted the cloud services back in 2015.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

Other surge protection pain points are not only when equipment blows due to that big surge, but what about when all the small surges start to cause problems. Jim explains what is happening over time when that happens. They aren’t noticeable problems at first but over time your equipment may fail or worse, become intermittent. Then you troubleshoot until there is not end only hoping that the equipment fails so you know what to replace. I have been there and done that! It is a serious pain point that will not only disrupt service but costs a lot of money in man-hours trying to figure out that is failing. Of course, no one looks at that as a surge protection problem, do they?

One thing that comes up again and again is planning. Plan to do the surge protection up front and you save a lot of money on maintenance down the road. That is why the owner or lead person has to be involved because then you see the larger end to end picture that affects not only the installation budget but the maintenance budget and the spares budget. One thing I learned in deployment is that everyone looks at the high cost of deployment but maintenance doesn’t seem to get noticed until the warranty ends, then it’s a real issue. By the way, not many warranty items cover lightning strikes, am I right?

Well, you heard me talk about it but your best bet is to listen to Jim on the podcast. He tells us about solutions and real world stories. He covers mostly telecom but also explains how they protect data centers and building and more. Jim is really a well-rounded engineer when it comes to surge protection. He won’t point you in one direction, but in the right direction for your needs.

One thing that Jim brought up is that you need to face reality, sometimes you can’t design the perfect system, not cost effectively, and he knows that. So they do make the effort to balance your budget with realistic expectations. Especially for tower sites, it could take too much copper to reach the ideal goal, so set the expectation to a realistic goal. All they ask is that you know your goal for the situation.

Jim tells a few real life customer stories about grounding situations for a tower site with really rocky ground. They found a way to make it the best grounding solution you could get for a better grounding situation for a good price. Proper planning made the difference and save the customer money by not going the trial and error route.

If you want to see what ALLTEC can do, visit http://alltecglobal.com/ but your best bet is to visit the resources page at http://alltecglobal.com/resources/ to see what they can do. We talk about this in the podcast, the “Lightning Risk” icon and you can see options that help you assess risk, I think that is pretty cool. Go ahead, try it, you know you want to!

For more information from ALLTECand about lightning and surge protection call 800.203.2658 or 828-646-9290 or go to these resources:

They offer a lot of good information.

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Scope of Work tutorial for the contractor to keep both sides doing the right thing for payment.

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Bob McCook Explains D3M Radio Solutions

July 14, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Today I have Bob McCook on my podcast and he explains the best way to take your system from the pre-sales design phase all the way to the customer then delivery and then to maintenance. This is such a great solution for any VAR, (Value Added Reseller) to create the design, present to the customer, then give them a package that they can use for maintenance after delivery.

Pain points:

So ask yourself, how many processes do you have from pre-sales to delivery to maintenance? Is it seamless? Do you have an easy way to keep track of the BOM and the system design? Does the delivery team see the same or even similar documentation that the customer saw when they bought it? What about the tech that has to maintain it, does the tech see what was delivered or do they have to make their own spreadsheet? That is another thing, how do you look at the system? Are you using a combination of Visio or AutoCAD and a spreadsheet and maybe even a PowerPoint deck that is now a PDF? Then you have to keep track of those manuals, the PDF files you need to troubleshoot. What about the config files, where do you keep those? Are they on your laptop or on a server at work. When you’re at the site, do you have access to all of this? What is the backup tech is called while the main tech is on vacation, then what? All of these problems are covers in this podcast.

What about Bob?

Bob is a pretty cool guy that for one, has a great voice, who co-founded Teldio. Teldio created solutions for radio communications. He did this by building apps for 2way telephony. While he solved many problems in that area I was interested in D3M. We talk about what D3M really is and what problems it will solve in wireless deployment. Learn more at http://www.d3mradios.com/#/what-is-d3m.

What is D3M, really?

This solution stands for Design, Document, Deliver, and Manage, D3M, get it? With this app you can create a design with something that will show you the design, site and system, and from that it will build the BOM for you to take to the customer and show them the design then present them with the system BOM with the ability to break it down to the site BOM. Very easy to create sites then replicate them.

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The D3M system design is not just for sales to take to the customer, it is for the customer to keep so that they have a complete record of the as built, it is for the delivery team to use this to build the system from the design and BOM, and then it is passed onto the maintenance teams so that the site tech has a complete design, system and site, along with the BOMs, and they have a place to store all of the files and PDF books in a common area for any tech to access. How cool is that? It has the complete solution for sales to delivery to maintenance.

Learn more and listen to the podcast!

Bob does a great job explaining what this can and will do for anyone who is designing and delivering a system. It really is a great solution. Beginning to end.

When you go visit http://www.d3mradios.com/ make sure that you click on the “Try it for free!” button and take the tour, see how you like it. If you prefer a live demo, you can book your own demo, go to https://d3mtraining.youcanbook.me/index.jsp and set a date.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

FYI – if you want more of an incentive to sign up, the folks at D3M are offering you, the hard workers in wireless, a 10% discount when you use the following code to subscribe, WADE4WIRELESS10, while signing up for your subscription. That’s right, 10% off any annual D3M subscription!

I signed up and it is very easy, you need to fill out the form. Make sure you look at the agreement all the way to the end, you need to do that before you can click “I have read the agreement”. You can’t move on until you scroll all the way to the end. Then complete the information and you’re ready.

What’s nice is that they have demo project that comes up so you can see something and play with a project. It is easier for the first time to click on the demo and start moving things around and making changes. From there you get the idea of how to make changes.

Go ahead, try it, you will like it. I know, it reminds you of Visio. However, then you go to the Fleetmap icon at the top and you see that the bill of materials, BOM, is already there for you, so you don’t need to open Excel and build a spreadsheet.

From there, if you look at the icons at the top right, then you see you can share with team members, export the project, take notes, and more. It really is easy to use.

Learn more in this demo video:

Learn more by going to http://www.d3mradios.com/#/what-is-d3m and signing up for a free demo.

See it from beginning to end at http://www.d3mradios.com/take-a-tour/ when you can.

Maybe this drawing will help:

What does a customer say?

“D3M is such a powerful tool with everything you can do with it. I haven’t seen anything like this in the industry. It makes things so efficient from beginning to end, to have everything documented, have a drawing of how everything is laid out, a bill of materials and inventory right there in front of you and the files all update quick and easily. I was blown away! It’s a more efficient and easier way to do things.”

For more customer testimonials, go here.

TOWER CLIMBING: AN INTRODUCTION (The book about getting started as a tower climber)

Feedback, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Tower Safety Veteran Patents Credentials Verification Service (CVS) to stop The Fraud

July 12, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Today I wanted to talk about how we can clean up the tower industry’s sloppy credential problem. There are several companies out there that fake safety credentials and certifications! Advanced Safety Pros’ Founder, Clifford Wilcox found a way to improve the system of uploading, tracking, and verifying a field worker’s credentials. This is a way to really improve the certifications by having them verified by the school itself.

If you think we need a great way to clean up the problem of poorly accredited credentials, fraud, and industry-accepted certifications, then listen to the podcast and hear what Cliff has to say. This solution can be used across so many industries, from medical to security to the wireless industry. I think it’s a great solution to verify that ‘people are who they say they are’!

Some background on Cliff. Cliff is a self-proclaimed, serial entrepreneur with over 30 business ventures in the past 40+ years. He currently serves Atlanta-based Integrated Tower Services as a Business Strategist and Manager, partners with his wife at CW Productions – based in Wyoming, is the President and Senior Safety Consultant for Advanced Safety Pros Corp – based in Reno, Nevada AND is Founder and Chief QRedentialier “KWER-dential-ear” for “QREDENTIALS”.

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This latest brainchild is a great way to manage credentials for all the people that need to keep track of their certifications and documentation. The person that has to manage all of these for the workers can keep it in an Account that keeps it readily available and easily updated anytime they need it. Then, to take it a step farther, QREDENTIALS Black Diamond membership even verifies the certifications and credentials to make sure that they are legitimate with the school that is on the document. Then anyone can see that it’s the ‘Real Deal’. Not all can be verified, but the Climbing credentials, Emergency Responses, along with the OSHA 10, really MUST be legally provided and verified, right? Take 2 minutes to watch “MEET SAL” on QREDENTIALS‘ Home Page or on YouTube at https://youtu.be/cmEXZG2EMEk

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

QREDENTIALS solves the problem of tracking and verifying the credentials in the field. The uniquely generated QR-code for each Member makes it easy for the safety inspector to verify the credentials of each worker of every site. By using a smart phone, you see the people on the tower, real-time and then you easily access their credentials by scanning the QR-code for verification. It is quick and easy.

Pain Points:

For the field worker – carrying the binders full of certifications and keeping them in the truck but available. Also, keeping it up to date.

For the safety manager – keeping all the credentials in one place, keeping the binders up to date, keeping track of all the certifications and credentials for each employee.

Or the field manager or foreman – looking for the binders and keeping each binder available as tower hands change crews.

For the safety inspector – looking at the binders and verifying the workers in the field and trying to see what is outdated or not valid.

Problems resolved:

Now, the climbers and foreman can keep one badge with a QR code, not worrying about updating the binder because the safety manager will keep the QR file updated.

The safety manager no longer needs to make copies. They can just upload the files to the directory on the website.

For the inspector he can scan the QR code and see the credentials immediately and then look at the climber with a smartphone to verify the climber on the tower is who he says he is.

To learn more about QREDENTIALS go to https://www.QREDENTIALS.com/ and see all that they have to offer. You can sign up for free at http://app.qredentials.com/Account/Register and you can get free training just by asking at https://www.qredentials.com/free-training.html to see how to use it properly. Also, check out the early stages of products, customized for your Account, at the QR-STORE by checking out, Qrew-Qubes, Office Qubes, Smart Binders, Scanner-Aligners, all COMING SOON at http://www.shop.advancedsafetypros.com/ASP-STUDENT-STORE_c2.htm

Reach Cliff by emailing him at Cliff@QREDENTIALS.com or go to https://www.qredentials.com/ and see how to reach him.

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Kathy Brand Takes Training Personally

July 6, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Today I talk to Kathy Brand, CEO and founder of Tower Safety and Instruction. She worked for AT&T doing outside plant and CO work for years. In the interview she talks about how the lack of respect for safety training was commonplace. This encouraged her to start the school for one of the most dangerous jobs, tower climbing. She feels here school stand for workplace safety by showing the students the value of safety. Kathy has done a great job building this school from scratch. Being a woman owned business in a male dominated industry has been challenging to say the least.

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LinkedIn LTE Small Cell, CRAN, and DAS Deployment

I have put what I could in the blog, but listen to the podcast to get to know how she got this far and how she deals with challenges in the tower training industry. Just a warning, there are a few swear words in this and adult language, so be prepared when you listen.

There are so many training schools in the tower industry, what makes one stand out? Kathy tells us that its 1) honesty – being aware of the challenges that the climber will see on the job, 2) Accountability – proactively taking action and making changes when needed, and 3) Integrity -, inspiring and coaching coworkers to perform safely. Training coverage includes tower safety and rescue, CPR/First Aid, and OSHA 10. Maybe you need. Kathy understands that companies make training decisions around budgets of money and time. We can’t always send people away for a month to be trained, but we do want them to be trained properly by a reputable school, preferable one that is state accredited.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

Today’s tower installation industry calls for the tower tech to learn so much on the job. The RFP process in carrier work has made training tough because the payback is so low. Some of these RFPs and reverse auctions are literally a race to the bottom that discounts the cost for safety.

So what Tower Safety and Instruction will do is make the training personal. They not only will train their students, but Kathy will stay in touch with them well after the class. The support after the class is very important because we all know that in this industry the learning only begins with the training. Anyone in the field should be trying to sharpen their skills weekly. It doesn’t always mean in the class room but on the job. If you need a resource, then you have someone to call for support. This is very important for the tower climber to grow their skills.

The students in this school are learning by doing more than reading and climbing a tower. The classes are interactive where the students tell stories of what they really see out there in the real world. While the learning environment is fun it shows the climbers what real world problems they may run into and helps them prepare for the day when they may have to make a decision of whether to do something stupid or not, which (sadly) usually is a decision of keeping your job or quitting. We have egos, especially among climbers, but the goal should be to become better and make our fellow climbers better for knowing us.

Training is serious business and Kathy makes every effort to make her students take it seriously. That doesn’t mean you can’t make jokes and be light-hearted, but make a point to take the safe part seriously.

TOWER CLIMBING: AN INTRODUCTION (The book about getting started as a tower climber)

One more thing, this school had drone training for the wireless industry, how cool is that? I think it’s a breakthrough for the industry to have a resource for drone training.

To learn more go to www.towersafety.com or reach out to Kathy at Kathy@towersafety.com and see how she can help you out.

Kathy mentions the Keven Gambold interview, link found here.

More information on NCCO found here.

More information on SPRAT found here.

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Sprint cried WOLF one too many times!

What about T-Mobile?

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To sum it up:

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Who will win in 5G?

Will 5G be a Failure?

What is the plan?

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So how will wireless IOT work?

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Announcement!

The Wireless Deployment Bundle ready for release!

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Pain points:

What about Bob?

What is D3M, really?

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What does a customer say?

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Pain Points:

Problems resolved:

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