Sunday, May 01, 2005
A Tale of Two Cellphone Towers
Well, actually it's a tale of one real tower and one "wanna have" tower. It's also a tale of frustration in two areas - Mendham Township, NJ, where the residents have lost a battle to keep a cellphone tower out; and Susquehanna County, PA, where residents can't get the towers they want. If there is one big common lesson in these tales, it's that the cellphone towers go where the market force directs. If you want one, may the Force be with you. I'll tell you why I think the Force is coming to us, but first the tale.
In Susquehanna County, 42,000 people live in 850 square miles of the wooded, rolling "Endless Mountains" of NEPA. Many residents live on farms or large rural plots. Over the last few years, several attempts have failed to attract cellphone service providers and their towers. Both the county and individual townships have offered up their land as potential cell tower sites to no avail. We have lots of rural tranquility, but not much cellphone coverage or broadband access.
"In Mendham Township," ,according to this NYTimes article on Cellphone Towers , "with a population of 5,600, multimillion-dollar homes are set back from the main roads along long narrow lanes. The area's lush, hilly terrain contributes to its appeal but obstructs the lines of sight needed for clear cell signals." (Well, at least we have that in common!)
" The residents here (are) among the wealthiest in the nation .... So when Verizon Wireless proposed building a 150-foot cellular transmission tower atop one of the highest hills in town, local officials said no, thinking local zoning laws would dictate where the tower could be placed.
They were wrong. In the next few months, after a futile battle against Verizon and four other wireless carriers, the residents of Mendham Township will see the tower go up, visible from most parts of the town."
"Ed Donohue, a lawyer based in Washington who has represented wireless carriers in several cases, estimates that more than 500 cell tower disputes around the country have ended up in court.
As carriers expand their networks to cover more residential areas, they are invoking the federal telecommunications law, which allows them to ask either a state or federal court to overturn a local zoning decision to reject a tower if that decision has the effect of prohibiting the provision of cellphone services.
The carriers, more often than not, are winning the legal skirmishes."
"Howie Waterman, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said the carrier's search in Mendham Township for a suitable site was painstaking.
"We looked at 33 different locations," he said. "It wasn't random by any stretch." "
"Town officials had recommended alternative sites on municipal property, which they considered less obtrusive and which would have generated revenue for the town.
But Verizon Wireless rejected the town's suggestions, arguing that Mr. Barsa's property made the most sense because of the stretch of road the carriers needed to cover."
Well, that's how the sad tale of Mendham ends. What can we learn from it? A key lesson is that cellphone service providers have a very clear idea of what makes good business sense for them; they will investigate and may negotiate, but will do what it takes to get good tower sites and to avoid less desirable ones. It really is all about enough market force to warrant the investment.
Another point is that we are not being ignored. Recently a major service provider came to our county officials about potential sites in areas of interest to them. They were not induced to come here by us or by our suggested sites. They decided to come here based on gaps in their coverage and their expansion plans - much like Verizon's effort in Mendham.
So, do we have to wait for the market to catch up with us or can we get some of that Force to be with us? There are two aspects to the Market issue - size (potential revenue) and entry cost. Certainly we can try to advertise ourselves as an attractive and interested market. That can help, but it still leaves the entry cost problem. Long distances over hilly terrain implies a lot of investment in expensive towers for a few customers - at least for now.
Rapid advances in technology, along the lines of WiMax and Mesh Networks, are on the verge of forming new "consumer technologies", that is, technologies that produce very large quantitiies of relatively inexpensive devices. These technologies apply directly to distributing communications services over our kinds of terrain at potentially much lower investment costs. Instead of half a dozen big towers, with high power equipment, to cover a hilly area, think about one smaller less expensive tower and many very small antennas on utility poles or silos to distribute the radio and phone signals where needed. And the system may be able to provide both cellphone and broadband internet access.
We may get the Force with us, but for a future that doesn't look like the present.
In Susquehanna County, 42,000 people live in 850 square miles of the wooded, rolling "Endless Mountains" of NEPA. Many residents live on farms or large rural plots. Over the last few years, several attempts have failed to attract cellphone service providers and their towers. Both the county and individual townships have offered up their land as potential cell tower sites to no avail. We have lots of rural tranquility, but not much cellphone coverage or broadband access.
"In Mendham Township," ,according to this NYTimes article on Cellphone Towers , "with a population of 5,600, multimillion-dollar homes are set back from the main roads along long narrow lanes. The area's lush, hilly terrain contributes to its appeal but obstructs the lines of sight needed for clear cell signals." (Well, at least we have that in common!)
" The residents here (are) among the wealthiest in the nation .... So when Verizon Wireless proposed building a 150-foot cellular transmission tower atop one of the highest hills in town, local officials said no, thinking local zoning laws would dictate where the tower could be placed.
They were wrong. In the next few months, after a futile battle against Verizon and four other wireless carriers, the residents of Mendham Township will see the tower go up, visible from most parts of the town."
"Ed Donohue, a lawyer based in Washington who has represented wireless carriers in several cases, estimates that more than 500 cell tower disputes around the country have ended up in court.
As carriers expand their networks to cover more residential areas, they are invoking the federal telecommunications law, which allows them to ask either a state or federal court to overturn a local zoning decision to reject a tower if that decision has the effect of prohibiting the provision of cellphone services.
The carriers, more often than not, are winning the legal skirmishes."
"Howie Waterman, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said the carrier's search in Mendham Township for a suitable site was painstaking.
"We looked at 33 different locations," he said. "It wasn't random by any stretch." "
"Town officials had recommended alternative sites on municipal property, which they considered less obtrusive and which would have generated revenue for the town.
But Verizon Wireless rejected the town's suggestions, arguing that Mr. Barsa's property made the most sense because of the stretch of road the carriers needed to cover."
Well, that's how the sad tale of Mendham ends. What can we learn from it? A key lesson is that cellphone service providers have a very clear idea of what makes good business sense for them; they will investigate and may negotiate, but will do what it takes to get good tower sites and to avoid less desirable ones. It really is all about enough market force to warrant the investment.
Another point is that we are not being ignored. Recently a major service provider came to our county officials about potential sites in areas of interest to them. They were not induced to come here by us or by our suggested sites. They decided to come here based on gaps in their coverage and their expansion plans - much like Verizon's effort in Mendham.
So, do we have to wait for the market to catch up with us or can we get some of that Force to be with us? There are two aspects to the Market issue - size (potential revenue) and entry cost. Certainly we can try to advertise ourselves as an attractive and interested market. That can help, but it still leaves the entry cost problem. Long distances over hilly terrain implies a lot of investment in expensive towers for a few customers - at least for now.
Rapid advances in technology, along the lines of WiMax and Mesh Networks, are on the verge of forming new "consumer technologies", that is, technologies that produce very large quantitiies of relatively inexpensive devices. These technologies apply directly to distributing communications services over our kinds of terrain at potentially much lower investment costs. Instead of half a dozen big towers, with high power equipment, to cover a hilly area, think about one smaller less expensive tower and many very small antennas on utility poles or silos to distribute the radio and phone signals where needed. And the system may be able to provide both cellphone and broadband internet access.
We may get the Force with us, but for a future that doesn't look like the present.
