Hey, I was thinking about the all the legal battles that go on in the wireless world. I stumbled upon and article about a law suit where AT&T was fighting to get tower built-in a small town, The Village of Corrales, (near Albuquerque, NM), so that they would have coverage. This is so they fill a hole. I support AT&T 100%.The article is here if you’re interested. Another article is here. So do you think that AT&T will put the legal work out to bid?
Let’s look at the scenario. AT&T writes the RFP and puts the RFP out to bid, stating they need legal council to fight for the tower to be built. Then they put it out to bid, looking for the best price. A turf vendor picks it up and says they can do it. So then they look for a local vendor in the ares, in New Mexico. Well that vendor doesn’t have any lawyers working for them but don’t worry, there is a local law office in the city which has lawyers willing to go to court for $20/hour. So they hire the cheapest person in the area that can complete the outline in the SOW, but did they do background checks? Who cares, it’s cheap and the contractor probably won’t pay anyway.
Would AT&T take chances with a legal battle by not hiring the best they can? Then why would they take chances with climbers, a high risk job where people die?!? Does anyone die in court? I don’t think so, at least not in a battle to build a tower. I believe that AT&T, and all the carriers understand how important climber safety is and they will do everything they can to ensure that the climber arrives home at the end of the week, alive.
Trust me, every life matters, if we can save one by making sure the climbers are properly qualified with training and certification and experience the right way, then we are on the path to a better world. It won’t eliminate accidents, which happen, but it will help the industry grow to be as safe as it can possibly be. All I ask is that they require proof of safety and build in money for teams to go on site randomly and do safety audits.
Personal comment, I support towers being built. NIMBY, (Not In My Back Yard), is very common. I feel like we live in a crazy world when the carriers have to go to court just to help improve coverage in these communities, think of all the money wasted by doing this. If you ever went through the zoning process you would realize how painful this process is. (Kudos to all the site acquisition people out there!) Everyone wants coverage, yet no one wants to see the tower. We are overcoming that battle by building mini cell sites and small cells. DAS and Distributed small cells are helping us overcome those issues. However, for all of these people that fight the communications tower being built, or object to antennas being places nearby, (refer to LARICS system being slowed down), with the end result being a 911 call can’t get through or even worse emergency responders don’t have coverage to call for help or backup then who is to blame? Does the FCC look to the people who objected to the towers, no, they blame the carrier for being so irresponsible for not building it there in the first place.
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This is part 2! All the same information is below from Part 1 just the podcast is different. I want to make sure you can find part 1 so go here to listen!
Alright, I had so many technical issues and the interview went so long I had to break it into 2 podcasts!
However, Vicky was a trooper and although it comes out a bit choppy and my audio isn’t the best I did get the interview and Vicky is just full of information about the towers and the climbers in her book. She talks about Tony the Tower Builder and she also mentions some interviews with some other climbers that are crazy. It’s good to hear about how these guys have lived and worked as well as how someone like Tony, a good guy, could persevere throughout all of the hardships of the job and his life to come out with such a good attitude.
Vicky talked to so many people in researching this book. Her faith in GOD really shows in this interview and in the book because things just seemed to work out in here favor and she researched this story. She learned so much about WW2 history as well as towers as well as tower climbers. I really enjoyed the book. It was a 3 year venture that Vicky worked relentlessly to solve the mysteries of the tower and the beacon. Along the way she learned so much about American history. The Blaw-Knox towers and the WBT-AM radio station are very interesting.
Vicky originally became interested in the towers because her brother is a HAM radio operator. I call them HAMsters. I have so many friends that are HAMsters and you will see on their emails they always have their call signs below their names. They spend so much time getting on their radios and they play the game of trying to reach the most people the farthest away. Not only that but it was the original social network, the way I see it. They would talk to each other at set times to discuss radios and other interests. It is like the BBS services back when dial-up was common because digital text only bulletin boards were quite common for technical people. HAM radios were around before that, since the 50s really, and it was a way to keep in touch. Well, that will be another blog is anyone is interested in having me research that then let me know.
Trust me, every life matters, if we can save one by making sure the climbers are properly qualified with training and certification and experience the right way, then we are on the path to a better world. It won’t eliminate accidents, which happen, but it will help the industry grow to be as safe as it can possibly be. All I ask is that they require proof of safety and build in money for teams to go on site randomly and do safety audits.
Everyone wants coverage, yet no one wants to see the tower. We are overcoming that battle by building mini cell sites and small cells. DAS and Distributed small cells are helping us overcome those issues. However, for all of these people that fight the communications tower being built, or object to antennas being places nearby, (refer to LARICS system being slowed down), with the end result being a 911 call can’t get through or even worse emergency responders don’t have coverage to call for help or backup then who is to blame? Does the FCC look to the people who objected to the towers, no, they blame the carrier for being so irresponsible for not building it there in the first place.
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