Quest for Copper Brings Down Tower
It has come to this. The mania for stealing copper has resulted in the downing of a whole 300-foot cell tower just to steal a few pounds of scrap metal from the structure in Tracy City, TN.

Thieves apparently had stripped off the copper grounding wire from one guy anchor and had begun cutting the grounding wire from a second when for some reason they cut through the guy wire itself, which sent the 8-ton structure crashing to the ground, according to Ricky Gibbs, wireless and marketing manager for DTC Wireless, the carrier that rented space on the tower. MORE

`Dateline Presents' Features Tower Climbers
An episode of NBC-TV's "Dateline Presents" scheduled for broadcast at 10 PM Eastern Time tonight takes "a never-before-seen journey into the perilous world of the tower climbers who work on the frontlines of America's high-tech communications system," a statement from the network reads.  

Tower Co. Confused, Frustrated by Rejection in Idaho Forest Area
Jennifer Campbell was flummoxed when she found out that the U.S. Forest Service rejected the siting of a tower proposed for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA), north of Ketchum, ID, on July 11.
 
Campbell is the co-owner of Ketchum-based Idaho Tower Co., which filed an application for the site in 2003.   "Considering the amount of work that went into being incredibly sensitive to the environment, integrating it and camouflaging it, visually we believed it was not going to make an impact," she said. "There is nothing we can do about the fact that the technology has to be above the tree line and we don't have Harry Potter's cloak to make it entirely invisible." MORE

Courts Wait for OMB to OK Cell Site Survey
It must have seemed like a great idea at the time. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina that saw nearly every function of society breakdown, the FCC decided to mandate eight hours of backup power for each cell site nationwide.

Certainly communications are considered vital to the threads that bind the fabric of society, especially during an emergency like the flooding caused by Katrina, and all communications sites depend on power. But the process of fixing the problem has hit a bureaucratic snag. MORE

FEMA Won't Pay for Storm Damaged Public Safety Repeaters
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied an appeal of a federal decision to deny public disaster assistance in Newton County, MO, for flood damage, according to the Neosho Daily News
As a result, the costs for replacing two repeater towers area agencies lost in the storm will not now be covered by federal assistance.  The agencies affect include the Newton County Sheriff's Office and the Neosho Fire Department.

Companies Combine To Help Others Restore Communications
A unique partnership has been struck between TowerWorx and Orbital Data Net to provide mobile emergency satellite communication systems.

The joint venture will combine TowerWorx ability to design, fabricate and integrate complete turnkey mobile and portable communication solutions with the remote and emergency communications solutions of Orbital Data Net.MORE

Rohn Products Division Sold to O'Brien Steel Radian Communication Services has sold the assets of its Rohn Products Division in Peoria, IL, to O'Brien Steel Service, also based in Peoria. MORE

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