I don’t know how many of you are aware how the RRH, remote radio head, is mounted at the tower. First, what is a radio head? It is the RF unit that connects to the antenna. It receives the data from the BBU, base band unit, and converts that data to the RF and then send it to the antenna, see below.
So, why am I showing you this? Because there is a buzz in the industry that is making the carriers make a decision. Should they get high or should they stay low? High or low, tower or ground, tough decisions! Let’s look at the options and the pros and cons.
Go high! If you decide to mount on the tower, what are the pros? The RF properties are great because you have very short RF jumpers between the RRH and the antenna. This means that you have very low loss and less chance of problems from the RF cable. you run fiber up the tower which has low loss. RF cables are very expensive compared to fiber and they are harder to run, so the short jumpers are cost-effective.
Go high has some cons. Fiber is not a natural tower climber skill, so the fiber terminations need to be done in the air. You will need to run power up the tower to power each RRH. The weight on the tower increases so the loading will increase so the costs go up with improving the structural integrity of the tower. The break out box is now up in the air where only a tower climber can access it. This means that every problem you may have with fiber, RF jumpers, or the RRH all need to get a tower climber to repair it. This adds cost to the maintenance and it add delays to the repair. So if you have a sector down due to a faulty fiber, you need to schedule the tower crew to repair it and you need to hope the weather permits the climb. Then you need to pay for it. These are all big problems!
Go low! If you decide to mount on the ground then you need to build the structure to mount the RRHs. This I may add cost but it may be cheaper than having the tower crew pull everything up in the air and mounting it on the tower so this may be a wash. The pros would be that the RRH is where you can work on it. The fiber is where you can clean and repair it easily. You have access to one side of the RF cables for you to look at and troubleshoot. If there are problems then your site tech can troubleshoot all the way to the RF connector. This save cost on the climber and saves time on the schedule. The loading on the tower will be lower so you may not have to beef up the tower to handle all of the additional weight.
The cons of the low mount are this. The RF cable to run up the tower is very expensive for the cable and to run it. You also have to ground all the cable and the route the cables. Speaking of cables, you will have higher RF loss, you will have a great chance of interference, sweep each cable, and mount each cable properly. This may be a problem and will add costs up front. One last thing, if the RRHs are mounted on the ground security could be an issue because they will be exposed.
So what do you do? It depends what is important to you. If you are concerned about maintenance and repair, then low is the best option. If you are concerned about the tower loading and the costs up front, then high is the best option. I know that the biggest complaint about high is the repair costs and time. It seems like making changes is a problem. Upgrades may be a problem.
Some things to consider either way.
MIMO will add many RF lines between the RRH and the antenna. 4T4R would be 8 cables between the RRH and the antenna. 8T8R would be 16 cables.
Each RRH may weigh between 30lbs to 100lbs depending upon what is in it.
There could be 3 to 12 sectors on each tower. This could be a factor.
RF cables over 10 feet will be much larger and more expensive cable.
Each tower climb post installation will cost money and require scheduling of days to weeks.
If there is a mass outage the climbers will all be booked.
Longer cables will need to be swept after the installation whereas the short jumpers could be assembled and swept before the installation.
Tower improvements could be needed to hold the extra weight of the radio heads.
Troubleshooting may be quicker if the site tech can get to the RRH.
The larger the coax the more it costs.
Climbers may need to terminate the larger coax cables on the tower if they run long RF cables.
Climbers will need to have fiber skills if the RRH is mounted in the air.
There you go, now you have a new way to look at the RRH and the installation issues that you may face. I hope it helps!
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I am asking you to help the Hubble Foundation because if you don’t help these families, who will? What if it were you? Would you want help? Who would help you if you were hurt? Who would help your family, your spouse, your children if something happened to you? Do you see the people who are hurt?
A climber working in the state game lands near Rote, Pa, near Danville and Loch Haven, fell 90 feet to his death. This is very sad news and one that didn’t get much attention. The accident happened September 25th. There was a crew of 5 working on the tower. Lamar Police Chief, Martin Salinas spoke to the Express, a local paper in Loch Haven and gave the report.
Matthew Vance fell off the tower while working on it. Life Flight was brought in to fly the man to Loch Haven Hospital in an effort to save him, this was at 11AM local time. At this time it is unknown if Vance dies on the helicopter or at the hospital.
Good Will Hose Company was the rescue team that showed up for assistance. The Express is working to find out more, their link is below.
I am trying to learn more about Vance and what happened. Any information is appreciated. Wade4wireless@gmail.com
I am asking you to help the Hubble Foundation because if you don’t help these families, who will? What if it were you? Would you want help? Who would help you if you were hurt? Who would help your family, your spouse, your children if something happened to you? Do you see the people who are hurt?
While working for Surf Air Wireless, John Richardson, 24 years old, from Michigan City touched some electrical wires while on the tower. He had to be airlifted to Memorial Hospital. There was a worker on the ground who called it in. They say there was a bright flash when he touched the lines. he is very lucky to be alive, but he is in serious condition!
When emergency workers got there he was hanging limp and seriously burned. He did NOT fall, his harness held him in place. Apparently he touched the wires and they rendered him unconscious. Hi coworker called 911 immediately. With electrical wires nearby it would have been very dangerous to go near him.
No idea how that happened. He was doing a broadband deployment near New Carlisle, In.
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I am asking you to help the Hubble Foundation because if you don’t help these families, who will? What if it were you? Would you want help? Who would help you if you were hurt? Who would help your family, your spouse, your children if something happened to you? Do you see the people who are hurt?
Close out packages are one step in the process. One that really matters to get paid. If you have ever done a close out package then you know how long they can take. You need to verify everything at the site and you need to take a photo of everything on the tower. This is where you can document everything. Personally, you should have everything documented prior to hanging it on the tower and you should know all of the serial numbers before it was hung and where they are. But this isn’t a perfect world and there have been so many mistakes in the past that they need to verify everything with close out packages. They may not even be done by the installers. Maybe a close out crew or a Tiger Team that goes in after the fact. Documentation matters for so many reasons.
One thing I hear about is how many crews need to make a second trip out to the tower site to complete the closeout package. This is a common thing but wouldn’t it be nice to do it right the first time? As you all know I am a fan ofField Dailiesfor close out packages. The reason is that they have streamlined the close out process by using your iPhone, or Droid, to send the site pictures direct from the site to a document. This is a software package that uses the cloud to process the pictures and put them into the closeout document. That way the climber doesn’t have to worry about going back to the room at night and either emailing them to someone or putting them into the document themselves. It also saves the office people from looking over each picture and hoping that they are named correctly for the document. Remember if something is wrong it causes problems down the road.
I am not sure if you know but carriers really use the close out documents more than you know. They are going to rely on that document to verify their work orders when turning up the site. If there are problems they are going to reference the document to verify grounding. When they pay the crews they will review the serial numbers in the pictures and documentation to make sure that all the OEM equipment is where I should be. This is the key to all the contractors getting paid.
If there are upgrades they will refer to the documentation to verify the serial numbers so they can cross reference what hardware version the RRH is. They may also like to review the plumbing on the tower. What this is the cabling needs to be correct. Now, with MIMO and multiband RRHs, the connections to the antennas are critical. There could be 1 to 8 RF cables from the RRH to each antenna. It might not be noticeable immediately but id the cables are messed up, then coverage is messed up and then someone has to go out and troubleshoot and fix it!
So again, when usingField Dailiesyou can provide the streamline process from the tower to the closeout document. The climber can name the photo and upload it, if they have coverage, immediately to the directory in the cloud. Then from there the app will put it into the document for you. All the office people have to do is inspect, clean up, and verify the pictures are clear and accurate. It saves so much time. Anything that saves time in the process is good. Workers already spent a full day at the site, why should they sit around and spend all night labeling and posting pictures. Then if there is a problem with the internet connection or their laptop, that adds a longer delay. Just do it all in one process.
Now, the future may hold new ideas. I hear a lot about drones doing more and more. I think if logistics and installation can properly ID the serial numbers before the equipment goes up then the drones may be used for a light close out package along with post installation inspections. I really think that they can streamline the process and cut costs. If you could send one person out to take the pictures then it helps. They should save time because they won’t be climbing, just prepping the drone to fly up and inspect. I hope thatField Dailieswill come up with a drone package so they can help make that a clean and efficient process as well.
When closing out make sure that you Know theSOW before you start. Before going up in the air make sure that you understand what you are inspecting, what pictures need to be taken, and what information needs to be gathered. Thescopeneeds to be known before you start. You may need to look at not only the antennas and RRHs, but where they are, the tape measure drop, the cable connection verification, and all grounding. It is tedious, but it need to be done to verify the installation. The close out is a type of inspection of the installation. When inspecting make sure it’s done right as well as taking pictures to verify. Not only the parts high up, but the cabling and grounding coming down and the equipment in the cabinet or shelter.
What do you think? Let me know and tell me how you complete your close out packages. Will this be an asset for small cells and CRAN? Will it help out with DAS? I hear many of you are already doing it.
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I am asking you to help the Hubble Foundation because if you don’t help these families, who will? What if it were you? Would you want help? Who would help you if you were hurt? Who would help your family, your spouse, your children if something happened to you? Do you see the people who are hurt?
Did you ever climb an AM tower? I’ll bet if you answer no, you think that it’s no big deal, right? Wellcheck out this video and maybe you will feel differently. Pretty hot, right, I meant the tower, it’s a hot tower, meaning that if they didn’t put the shorting jumper on it then you would get a serious shock and burn. You can hear the AM when he pulls it off and puts it back on. By the way, RSI has anoverview of AM here.
This isn’t about the climbing of the actual AM tower though. Let’s talk about the AM tower’s neighbors. The nearby towers that can be affected by the AM power radiating and causing problems. In what way? It causes the towers to charge and can bring the noise level up. AM radio stations create serious noise for other operators. Oh, and the FCC has clear rules about what you need to do to “detune” your tower if it sits near an AM tower. In fact,LBA lays out the 13 new rules clearly here. Not only to protect yourself, but to protect the AM stations transmission pattern. It matters to the FCC and it may not matter to you unless you are bombarded with noise issues or you get shocked on your tower or maybe, the FCC will send you a citation asking to comply.
So if you own or maintain a cell tower and want to remain compliant with the FCC, how do you know if it’s detuned? Well, according to a post by Lawrence Behr found here, you install a detuning system to remain compliant. It matters for so many reasons which I am outlining here, to be FCC compliant and for safety and to minimize noise. It all matters.
AM is Amplitude Modulation and in this case we mean AM broadcast. Lots of power in the540KHz to 1700KHz. band. This may not mean much to you. I worked near AM tower for years and the main thing I remember is trying to filter out Rush Limbaugh from all of my leased lines. Yes, I had many leased lines back in the day and AM would bleed into everything. However, I digress, let’s get back to the issue of hot towers.
Well, AM towers have been around for a very long time so this is something that you may want to learn about. If you climbers ever climbed a hot tower then you know that there is a process to climb it. They will either turn down the power down or you make the leap onto the tower. If it is live, then you feel the hot spots on the tower. The LBA post has so many good tips in it.
Detuning is probably something that most of you never think about. An important aspect here is that Compliance with the FCC. If you climbed a tower that has large ground wires run down the sides, then you probably saw the tuning systems. They generally stick out form the tower a few feet. It is very obvious. I am not talking about the ground wires that you tie tight to the tower. The large wires on the detuning system makes the tower look “invisible” to the AM pattern so it does not interfere (too much) with the radiation pattern. However, if you touch them you may get a shock! For more on AM detuning, go tohttps://www.lbagroup.com/and let them know that Wade sent you there!
By the way,LBA just appointed Gary Doyleas the new VP and General Manager of LBA’s safety training unit, LBA University, Inc. (LBAU). Congratulations to Gary.
So when on a hot tower or a detuned tower, what do you need to be aware of? Do you know if the detuning system is working and tested? Call the tower owner and ask. Do you need isolation hardware to mount your hardware? You may need help. Make sure you understand the site design. Make sure the installation crew knows all about the tower before they step foot on site. This is why LBA consults for something like this, to avoid the problems before they happen.
If you are mounting RRHs, make sure you know if they need special grounding or isolation. You may needisocouplers, which should isolate the equipment properly. Find out up front. They have an article on theirTunipole if you’re interested.
This is another hazard you need to be aware of if you are climbing. If you are working at the tower then be aware of what could zap you. If you are commissioning, be aware of the noise you are dealing with. If you are aware of not only your tower, but the nearby towers and the problems they may be causing you, then you are one step ahead of the competition!
The new “Wireless Deployment Book for LTE Small Cells, CRAN and DAS” should be ready by October! It will be geared towards small cells and CRAN. If your interested, feel free to sign up for my newsletter below.
I think I figured it out! Boy, do I feel stupid! I always thought that safety was the #1 problem in the tower industry until back at the TIRAP kickoff in DC I talked to Liz Day and she straightened me out. What is the #1 problem for tower climbers? I used to think it was safety, well, I was wrong. It’s really getting paid. Getting paid for your work and your expenses. In the past 2 years of talking to climbers this is what I am being told. Also up there, keeping or getting a job. It seems that most climbers do not stay employed for very long unless they work for a good solid small company. Many worry about where they will be working a month from now. Many worry about getting laid off or fired. Companies worry about the customer paying them for the work, for expenses, and for change orders. Safety is really not in the top 5!
First off, I think that it’s impressive that AT&T is taking a lead role in all the tower associations and certifications. They have a great guy, Art Pregler, running the NWSA for the certifications, as well as on the board for TIRAP, (the apprenticeship program). AT&T is going the extra mile to prove that AT&T is doing more than ever to improve safety in the field. I know many of you are not a fan of the carriers but they appear to be stepping up their involvement in safety. I believe that they really want to help. They are involved in NATE, TIRAP, and NWSA to do all that they can to make climbing safer. No matter what most of you think of the carriers, they generate millions of dollars of work. I think most of you now know not to bid low when you respond any bids for work. Margins matter so make sure you get paid fairly.
Getting expense money. Getting paid for Change Orders.
Where will I work next month?
Will I get fired/laid off if I say something?
Being away from home.
Safety!
Let me verify the #1 problem for tower climbers. If safety were the #1 problem then more climbers would have responded to the OSHA RFI. Let’s look at the OSHA RFI where OSHA asked for safety input responses of the tower climbers. Many of the responses came from the training companies, NATE, NWSA, and business owners. I am beginning to see that the business owners and industry organizations will need to take the lead in safety. There has been a great response by business owners and safety companies. The organizations like NATE, NWSA, and the Hubble Foundation all seem to have responded. Don’t get me wrong, there were over 150 tower climbers that responded either through Wireless Estimator’s great website to submit or direct on the OSHA’s website. Many of them responded under the name of Anonymous because they were afraid of getting fired. The brave ones who responded told OSHA the problems in the industry, including the money problems. The ones who didn’t respond had many excuses, mostly because they don’t’ trust OSHA. Let me punch a hole in this theory, OSHA put out an RFI to ask the climbers for input, why would they do that if they didn’t want to learn? So what if they never climbed, they are trying to learn what is really going on before more people die.
However, one thing that fills most climbers with fear, getting fired! Apparently many tower climbers don’t want to rock the boat. They want to keep their jobs so they deal with poor safety work conditions and don’t tell anyone that their company really sucks when it comes to safety. Why? They don’t want to get fired. They really like getting paid and feeding their families. That is what part of this industry is coming to. I feel bad when I think of how hard many climbers struggle to keep their jobs while others spend most of their money on booze and pot. The climbing industry has so many extremes. I have to admit, some of the best people I know are climbers, but then again some of the worst people I know are in this business. I plan to put a book out of all the climber’s stories, but I won’t name any names because so many people are scared of what is really going on and that they will labeled a rat. It seems like most companies care more about getting the job done no matter what for that payment at the end of the rainbow. They play the odds with safety. I wonder how many are properly trained or even have the proper safety gear.
For all of you that responded to the RFI, thank you. I really appreciate the fact that OSHA did this for the tower climbing industry and I think that all of you that responded deserve a great big appreciative pat on the back and you have my deepest gratitude for taking the time to show you really care about improving safety in the industry. Even if you responded anonymously you did your part, good job!
The way I see it is because safety is not #1 on most climber’s mind, is it? I talked to hundreds of climbers via email and phone over the last 2 years and they would all agree that money is the number one issue. They are more worried about getting paid and getting their expense money more than safety. Don’t get me wrong, they care about safety, but in reality they have bills to pay and they are really tired of getting screwed over. Safety is down there, in the top 5, but not in the top 3. I even spoke to Liz Day on this topic and she agreed. She said that everyone said this was the #1 issue but no one wants to go public with it because it creates serious issues between the customers and the workers.
The money issue is really the top problem in the industry. Getting paid, getting all the pay, and getting the expense money. Most field workers want to get paid for the time they work and for the job and for the expenses they incur. It’s field work, there are so many expenses for travel and living and parts and supplies. Many people don’t get paid for one or all of these. You need to take some of the companies to claims court to get paid. They gamble that you won’t. The other thing they do is play on stupidity for the teams that don’t get a signedscope of work. Understand what you are being asked to do. I can’t believe how many people would make fun of me for saying “understand theSOW” and then complain that they didn’t get paid, why do you think that is?Did you even read the SOW or did you just assume you knew what to do?Did you ASS-u-ME? Old saying, when you assume you make an ASS out of U and ME. That’s why we get things in writing because when we do favors and something is wrong someone feels like they got screwed. This is very common in the wireless industry. This should be business, not gambling.
Don’t get me wrong, there are scum buckets in every industry, in the wireless industry you have them on all sides. Unfortunately many of them are the lowest bidder, the ones that you can’t believe they are doing it so cheap. You also have climbers that lie, cheat, and steal. We all have stories about both if you have been in the industry for over 5 years. Getting paid isn’t just the contractor’s issue, although many of them struggle to get paid or the customer drags out the closeout so they don’t’ have to pay in the allocated 30 or 60 or 90 days. I know carriers pushing for net 120, can you imagine 120 days after acceptance you get paid? Anyway, most climbers, contractors and employees, worry about getting paid or where they will be working in a month if this work dries up. It is very similar to construction, like it or not. You work, and then you don’t. You get paid, and then you don’t. Rinse, repeat.
I am surprised how many companies don’t pay their employees. I got screwed out of expense money once, $5K, where I had to go to the New Jersey Department of labor for justice. I did get paid, because I took days off of work, got all of my documentation and logs together, and had a great case to present to the judge so I got paid. I kept good records. For all of you that think your company will do that, good luck! I hear that all the time, because people really hate paperwork. For all of you, learn the hard way.
Keeping the job is tough. Getting laid off really sucks, but it is very common in this business. If a company asks you not to work because they may call you back soon, don’t hold your breath. Instead look at the industry to see what is going on.I remember when AT&T was going to roll out a new build and then they didn’t leaving Mastec with egg in their eyeafter they ramped up for the work that never came. Big hit to them for the training. The funny thing is that AT&T cried the blues about not having the money to do that, you know, thecompany that just paid $49B for DirecTV, didn’t have the money for the rollout. They should do something with the AWS-3 bands, something has to happen there, right? They don’t owe the climbers jobs, they owe the stockholders a profit, I get that, just do better planning and stop making poor plans, that’s all I ask.
OK, back to the point. Many employees complain about getting fired because their company didn’t want to contribute to unemployment benefits or they get accused of poor workmanship or something else that is very hard to prove. Then the company will hire people when they need them when the work picks back up. Hey, welcome to free enterprise. All companies want to hire Einstein’s yet they all want to pay for grunts. Am I right? By the way, if there is a drug test and you test positive, that’s a tough one to fight. I think that POT is the one thing that people lose their jobs over most of the time. Even though many of you argue the legality of POT, it doesn’t matter what you think, it matters what company policy is and if you get caught. For all of you that want to argue that POT is not a drug, I don’t care, neither is alcohol but if your company has a policy about being on the tower drunk, then you will get fired. If you are on the tower and you are high and you fail a drug test, then you will probably get fired. If there is an accident and you test positive for any of these, then you will get fired and the company will lay all the blame on you. But hey, from the feedback I get, most of you just don’t care.
Having a good customer really helps. I look at Verizon Wireless and see that they are starting to use the same contractors over and over again. Do you know why? They are learning that you need to trust your contractors. To Verizon it isn’t always about the lowest bidder, but the lowest proven qualified bidder. This way they have crews and companies they trust and the shareholders are happy. I see that as a great balance. Notice I said proven because many people can look good on paper, but these crews have proven their worth by doing quality work repeatedly.
So when making a stand for safety, most climbers believe they have it figured out. They think what they do is the safest they can be. Maybe it is. They are still there, right? However, their real worry is getting paid. They want to work and get paid, that is the real issue here. I overlooked that when I first got into this. For some reason I thought safety was the #1 issue, when in reality it’s #4 or #5 after pay, expense money, and working. Many climbers have other issues, family, friends, or addictions that they will put ahead of safety. It’s out there. Some guys just like the rush of taking chances because they don’t think it will happen to them.
One of the reasons for poor safety is because many companies cut back due to cutting margins to win business. How about when the company tries to win the business by lowering their bids? They may cut back manpower, but workers bring in the money. Safety costs money! Safety training and equipment is very easy to cut. They all cost money and they think that no one will miss those extra fisks, Petzl IDs, ropes or rope grabs if they just disappear from the new crews kits. Or they won’t be replaced.
Lowest bidders come from the RFP process. The RFP process is hard, it is a tough business. They take time to respond to, they are generally too vague and miss details, and they take a lot of people to work on both sides. Then you pick a winner or loser depending on the margin to win. When you low bid you may expect to make it up in change orders and they you get a strike against you for too many change orders, but the reality is that you need to identify the problems in the scope prior. If you do work outside of the scope, you deserve a change order, but get it approved first! Understand the job prior to arriving to the site if at all possible. With all the site documentation out there you should have some idea of what your crews are getting into. Take the time to study the job’s scope of work!
This is why when you bid on 50 sites at a time, it is very hard to judge what will need to be done. That is where the GC will push the crews. The crews need to make some common sense decisions and stand firm on pricing. That is easier said than done, especially with 2015 being so slow and so many companies going under or changing industries. Many young climbers have left the industry, do you blame them? I don’t because I know that we all need to feed our families, don’t we? I worry about my job, but I still think we need to face reality.
So who will be the lead for climber safety? From what I see the leadership will need to be the business owners. The customers, like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile will drive safety by forcing the crews to be certified by the NWSA. Get ready to go through the certification process if you want to do carrier work. I am trying to let you know now because it will be a requirement. It is going to be hard to fake and they will request all of your certifications. Tower companies and carriers will drive this certification along with NATE. The NWSA will be the certification overseer but it will be up to you to be certified. Will the training companies play a part, hell yes. You still need to learn about it and you still need the hands on. Your crews will need to add certifications, from the NWSA and from the training companies. Add that to the list of expenses you need to cover. It will be part of doing business. If you ever did wireless work in Louisiana or Texas on oil fields then you probably already took these certification courses in a testing center. I have, and you need to do it!
By the way, if you don’t pay someone who does work in your house, they would turn it over to collections and you would take a hit on your credit. How are these companies immune? They are not, they play the odds that you will not take them to court, that simple. If you sue them or file complaints with the state’s department of labor, then they know you are serious and you can make a difference. The problem is that the wireless industry is made of very small companies that mostly do work themselves and they may not have time to go to court or they are afraid to take their customer to court for fear of losing future work. That has to change today!
If your company does NOT have the balls to take them to court, then report them to NATE with a complete explanation of the problem. Maybe NATE can help.
Another fallen climber, this time working on a cell tower in Summit Park, he was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital with a head injury and they say he is in stable condition. There is no farther update that I can find. No word on who he was working for. Apparently this happened Friday, September 11. This is sad news for West Virginia, to have another accident but this seems to be turning out better than the tower collapse 18 months ago.
Can you believe that companies are fighting over unlicensed spectrum? Seriously, who thought this could happen? The people who invested so heavily in Wi-Fi, like Comcastand Google, are angry at the carriers, specifically Verizonand T-Mobile, who want to make the most of the license free spectrum by deploying LTE-U. Who knew 5.8GHz would be so valuable? The unlicensed spectrum battleground!
HeyComcast, if you want to take out an opponent, then buyT-Mobile so you have one less carrier to worry about. Just a suggestion.
Why would deployment teams care?All of you that work in deployment will care because if LTE-U takes off then it will mean a lot of work because it should be all new equipment deployed. I don’t know who will be the first to roll it out, but it will need to be engineered and built. If they don’t do it then it’s Wi-Fi as usual, with all of the updates and hopefully some new spectrum soon. Think of it! If the cable companies roll it out first and they are in the best position to do so, then they could command the spectrum, or try to. From what I have seen, it takes the carriers a long time to deploy anything. The cable companies are nimble, they could do it quickly if they wanted to spend a few more $$$$$$$$$. Money is the issue, read on to find out more.
Why do Wi-Fi groups care? These people spent a fortune building out Wi-Fi and they are counting on all the people with smartphones and tablets to subscribe to their service. They were also hoping to get the carriers offload traffic to make more money on the side. This may hurt their business and they are also worried, (in the US), that the LTE may tramp on the Wi-Fi signal. There is no listen before talk in the US, which is you ever worked in Wi-Fi you see daily on your spectrum analyzer. I think that most companies don’t bother with spectrum analysis for Wi-Fi anymore, what is the point? Seriously!
Some background. I believe you all know what spectrum Wi-Fi runs on and that Wi-Fi is the only thing there. I think most of you know what LTE-U is, but for those of you that don’t know, here is my take. LTE-U is where Qualcomm(and Ericsson) worked together to create unlicensed LTE format in the 5.8GHz band where Wi-Fi currently runs. They are doing this to make the carriers systems and smart phones run more efficiently and because, (so they say), they can push more bandwidth through the same band. The carriers will be happy because it adds a great deal of efficiency to how they manage spectrum. Of course they say is will be a win for the consumer because they can access more data in the “free” bands. Hey, if Qualcomm says it then it must be true, right?
The Wireless Deployment Handbook should be out soon!
So the FCC has to determine if Wi-Fi and LTE-U (and/or LAA), can coexist. Can they, of course, but the issue here is probably not technology, it has more to do with business and politics, in my opinion. You would be given the option to buy a Wi-Fi or LTE access point for your house, wouldn’t that be cool? You know you would get LTE just because it is the latest and greatest. You would try to get it before anyone else did just to say you had it first. I wouldn’t because I am cheap and I would wait for the price to drop. But hey, that’s just me. I just gave up my iPhone 4s a few weeks ago because it worked and it was reliable.
So what is the big deal? The FCChas to approve LTE to be run in this spectrum. No big deal, right? Wrong!!!! Apparently some Wi-Fi groups see this as a threat! It could be the end of Wi-Fi as we know it. They think that the Wi-Fi civilization would end. Would it, who knows? I remember when most Wi-Fi units were in the 2.4GHz range, and many may still be there. By the way, did you know that your microwave heats up the food using the 2.4GHz band? It just uses a massive amount of power. Just something to think about next time you have a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi unit sitting next to your body. Don’t worry, the power difference is huge! Microwaves put out massive power and then bounce it around to make sure your Ramon noodles are hot. Sorry, back to the point.
The FCC has to make a big decision. On one hand they have the carriers who pump a lot of money into the economy and who finally found a way to make real money in this band. Then you have all the Wi-Fi advocates that sell a lot of hardware to people like me who love Wi-Fi access at home. I really do. To be honest, I think I would put in a LTE box at home if it worked the same and had more bandwidth. I don’t care, I just want great speed to upload blogs like this and to watch stupid videos on YouTube and to download my music! Isn’t that what a free society is all about, great internet access? Do most people care about the pipe? The only part of the pipe they care about is the monthly price, right?
So who is in favor of LTE-U? So far, Verizonand T-Mobile! They love the idea and they let the FCCknow that it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, (that is before we had to have sliced whole wheat bread because white bread is bad for us). I understand Verizon’s position because they want people on LTE because that is their bread and butter, they want the best performing system and they know that when people roam to Wi-Fi performance drops dramatically, making the system look bad when in reality it’s the Wi-Fi coverage. I think that T-Mobile is realizing that as well when they release Wi-Fi calling. I think that they see that Wi-Fi calling in a home with one Wi-Fi hotspot works very well but in a public place, like a train station or hotel lobby, it really sucks because of coverage and interference. I believe that with LTE-U they may be able to clean that up, but this is only speculation on my part.
Who is against LTE-U? Comcastand Googlewho already deployed tons of Wi-Fi hotspots. I also see that Republic Wireless and Cablevision are against it and for good reason because they just invested tons of money in Wi-Fi hoping to make money in offloading to the carriers, but if the carriers go LTE-U, then they may build out their own systems and not use any of these people. They would have to share the band with LTE and no longer get to have Wi-Fi hotspots along with all the other Wi-Fi providers out there. Google already wrote a letter to the FCCexplaining how the carriers would look at the Wi-Fi providers like the cable companies as competitors. I don’t know about that argument because in a capitalist society competition is considered good. So is Google saying that the carriers should partner with the cable companies? Not a bad idea, but if the FCCwould not let AT&Ttake over T-Mobile, would they allow Verizonand Comcastbecome solid partners or merge? Maybe, who knows, but I don’t ever see that happening. Rumor has it that Comcast is looking into buying T-Mobile, making them a competitor or the other carriers anyway.
Who is neutral? Apparently bothAT&T and Sprint. AT&Thas a conundrum because they deployed tons of Wi-Fi, signed Wi-Fi roaming agreements with SprintandT-Mobile, and yet they see the benefits in LTE-U, they really do. Sprint I think has too many other things to worry about, For instance Marcelo Claure is working to create a profitable company by following Softbank’s plan, so I understand why this is not a top priority. If I were him I would let T-Mobile worry about this issue.
How will the FCCmake this decision? I think they will look at the arguments, and trust me the carriers are very powerful on capitalhill with the help of PCIA and CTIA, so they have a strong edge in that department. They will look the Wi-Fi advocates and possibly listen to Comcast, who has lobbyists but they are not always popular with the Feds. Google, who is also against LTU-U has many friends in capitol hill, and they may use them if they decide to pick a fight, I really don’t know why they are fighting this but I know if they want to fight they will convince us that they are doing it for the greater good in society, that seems to be a common argument with them and I usually fall for it. Then the FCCwill weigh in to see what effect this will have on future auctions, will LTE-U actually make the carriers utilize more free bands and lessen the need for licensed bands? This is the economics of the FCC. I don’t think they have anything to worry about since they just soaked the carrier for billions, which you and I will see as a slight increase in our mobile phone bills. I know they sold off assets to pay for it up front, but these carriers are smart, they will make the money back quickly after they deploy. It really feeds the economy with the deployment services (billions of dollars for RF, tower, and engineering workers) and then all of the commercials of who has better coverage, (millions for advertising companies), and plans will be on TV and on YouTube, I’m just saying.
Something to think about, if the carriers do win and LTE-U or LAA is deployed, then the deployment teams will see income from a brand new deployment, a new market, new hardware on the scene. This will really stimulate work for the teams that previously deployed Wi-Fi or LTE. They could be called into action to engineer and install equipment for carriers. The OEMs of Wi-Fi would have a new product to build and sell. I see the economic stimulus for the field works.
Who really wins? Probably the OEMs that make Wi-Fi gear. They will sell more product. Ubiquitywill make a cheap product that most people will deploy and Ruckuswill make carrier grade product. Then you have all the other in between. The cable companies will probably deploy their own gear or they already have contractors doing it. The carriers will go through the lab testing phase, then through the field testing phase then finally deploy. The carriers will probably put it out to bid, lowest qualified bidder, so make sure you understand your Scopewhen you deploy!
So what do you think? Is this really a big issue for you, the end-user? Or is this just a political issue? Are the carriers really trying to take over the world and starting with Wi-Fi or are they trying to help out the consumer by lowering device costs? Do you see Comcast and Google trying to save Wi-Fi as we know it or are they holding on to an old technology by refusing to change or give up their investments? What will the FCCdo? Will they weigh their decision only on technology or will they follow the political road and let the lobbyists fight it out on Capitol Hill? I guess we will see.
Stay informed!
This is something you may want to read, a letter that is signed by Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Competitors working together for the common cause of supporting LTE-U! http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001098662
Recently a young man died by climbing a tower for the fun of it. I hate that people think they are there for their amusement. It’s bad enough that many people getting paid to climb communications towers are poorly trained. Now you have people that think its fun to go up with no gear and act stupid. My hope here is that the police actively prosecute all of these people to the fullest extent of the law. Not because it is trespassing or simply wrong. To show these people that it is against the law and that they could die.
Fences help, they are the first deterrent. I also know on some towers they had the ladders covered with plates and locked to keep people off. Some towers had barbed wire around the legs to keep people off. I think the best thing is to have cameras at every site. Although the owners rarely have anything at the site other that the hardware, so it would be up to a tenant to install the camera and put it in the tower. Say like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile. I wish they all would do it just to keep the tower safe. I know they all alarm their cabinets or shelters, but there is not alarm on the tower and I really don’t know how you would do that.
So the young man I spoke of, (information here), was a thrill seeker and climbed for fun. Why climb? Apparently it was fun, but now he is dead. It is truly a shame that his family has to live with this horrible thing. This kid could have gotten trained to do this as a career and gotten paid for it! Why didn’t he look into that so he could have made money doing something he loved? We may never know why, and now his parents have to bury their son. What a sad story when this kid thought he could defy gravity with any safety equipment.
We see it all the time, these pictures of people doing this. I get that they think it is fun, and it probably is until they get caught or they die.
So do the right thing. If you see someone at a site that should not be there or not following the proper safety rules, like 100% tie off, let the tower owner know immediately. Tell them about it. Do the right thing so that they get the boot and you aren’t an accomplice. So many people just pass on by and say that it’s not their problem. How would you feel if you did nothing and then they wound up dead? I would feel horrible, but, I know many of you probably would say they got what they deserved. Well, what if you were considered an accomplice because you let it happen? What if you got a fine for letting it happen? Then you might care.
So pay attention to towers and who is on them. Let’s hope that the wireless field workers can act as a community to make the tower sites as safe as they can be by having qualified people on them. Keep the tower owners in the loop and alert them of this crap when it happens. Be aware and help each other out.
Smartphones love bandwidth! Any argument? Smartphones want more bandwidth, actually, the users love the bandwidth, the phone just want to keep up and avoid having the user throw it on the floor. Am I right? Did you ever sit there a scream at your phone because it did not perform well? Hey, don’t get mad, try to be understanding that the networks will get better. Maybe they can tap off the free spectrum until they get better.
Fist off the carrier wants to keep the customer on their system. licensed carrier, as long as they can to eat up the data the customer pays for every month. But the customer complaints and the loading is getting crazy so now they see they need to get a solution that includes Wi-Fi.
So the OEMs had to figure out a way to get LTE and Wi-Fi to play nice together. Really it was Qualcomm and Ericsson who came up with the plan, and they have several different ways to do it. Qualcomm figured out that if you could put LTE in a license free environment then it would play nice with LTE. The OEMs like the thought of carrier aggregation where they can can make multiple carriers look like one, more or less, in the UE device. This makes the sharing much more efficient in this day of bandwidth constraints. Whether you think it’s good or bad, let’s look over the different options.
By the way, most of these will likely be used in a small cell environment, usually inside a building or a stadium where the heaviest data usage happens. I would expect this to be used out on the street unless it’s like a city street with outside seating. Solving the bandwidth crisis can be done in more ways than just adding spectrum. It’s just that some carrier don’t think densifying, (densification), the network is worth the money but it may be a great way to solve the spectrum crisis. It seems like the larger carriers get it and they already added Macro, oDAS, and small cells to make this happen. So when you read that a carrier is going to run out of spectrum, look at the system end to end, open up your eyes!
For the sake of this article, I am going to talk about LTE on the carrier. I think that 3G will go away within the next 3 years in the USA if certain carriers can get off their bums and start building LTE in time for 5G to be released!
Wi-Fi boost – this is there the Wi-Fi provides the bulk of the downlink and the LTE carrier provides the bulk of the upload while providing little download to clean up the spectrum. Pros are if the Wi-Fi is clean you can use all the bandwidth to carry data, for instance if you are in your home with no interference and the kids aren’t streaming music. The con is if you are competing for bandwidth or the backhaul stinks or if there is interference on the Wi-Fi, then there are issues. This works with your existing Wi-Fi, it’s just an upgrade the carrier has to do on their system and a software upgrade in your Smartphone. Actually, this is very similar to what they do today with the Wi-Fi handoff. There have been many issues with handing off from Wi-Fi to the carrier and back again, but it is getting better than ever with everything except voice. I am sure someday that will be solved as well.
LWA – LTE Wi-Fi Aggregation – so here is where it is the same as above but the LTE adds a carrier for download, hence the aggregation. This will need the carrier to upgrade the small cell but the bandwidth is increased even more to the device. This may require an upgrade to the Wi-Fi AP. LWA likes to have the Wi-Fi and LTE together, at this time, for synchronization purposes. This will change as evolution happens. I believe this would need to be a new device for the end-user but maybe a firmware upgrade will do it, I am not clear on this right now. An overview here.
LTE-U – this is literally running the LTE format in the Wi-Fi spectrum. Why is this great when we already have Wi-Fi? It makes the handoff to the LTE carrier much more efficient for the RAN. This is what the carriers like because it ties into the carrier aggregation plans that they already have and the UE will see it, in theory, as another LTE carrier, not as a different technology. It is much simpler to do in the UE device.
LAA – Licenses Assisted Access works with LTE-U, LTE Unlicensed. This is not your father’s Wi-Fi, it is something new altogether that must learn to coexist with Wi-Fi, and so it is not Wi-Fi at all. It is literally LTE transmitted in a license free band, could be in sub 6GHz in the USA. In theory, it could have 2 to 5 times the throughput of Wi-Fi along with better coverage. This is all new equipment. Truly a Greenfield deployment. This would be a new user device, (new chipset). A good explanation here.
MuLTEfire – which is Qualcomm’s new offering where LTE could be completely unlicensed, let’s say something like 3.5GHz, but could also work with the licensed band. Qualcomm is always thinking about how to make better wireless chips. They know they need to build in the WOW factor. I have to admit, I said wow! I see great possibilities with new bands that are lightly licensed because they could open up new markets for backhaul and other last mile services. Remember that 5G is moving ahead and will be here in 5 years or less, Probably arriving around 2020.
I hope that helps you figure out what is going on out there. This is moving ahead very quickly but the carriers will test it before releasing it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be bugs but they will make sure it doesn’t affect their systems.
Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!
I am putting a small cell handbook together, it should be out soon. It will be geared towards deployment but a good reference overall. It will have most of what I post but also some extra notes is it. If your interested, feel free to sign up for my newsletter below.
means that every problem you may have with fiber, RF jumpers, or the RRH all need to get a tower climber to repair it. This adds cost to the maintenance and it add delays to the repair. So if you have a sector down due to a faulty fiber, you need to schedule the tower crew to repair it and you need to hope the weather permits the climb. Then you need to pay for it. These are all big problems!
I am asking you to help the Hubble Foundation because if you don’t help these families, who will? What if it were you? Would you want help? Who would help you if you were hurt? Who would help your family, your spouse, your children if something happened to you? Do you see the people who are hurt?
