Thursday, December 28, 2006

Cell Towers, Cancer and other Health Risks

This post refers to an article carried yesterday by the Associated Press regarding a study in Denmark of a large number of cell phone users and the numbers who wound up getting cancer.

Airwave Management, a leading cellular industry consulting firm, frequently discusses the problem of the public's perception of the wireless telecommunications with property owners who contact us. The fears some people have are valid due to the the poor job the cellular carriers have historically done to properly educate the public.

Municipalities will need to get ready for advances in technology that will cause more -- not less -- cell sites to be built. Cell towers are NOT going away any time soon, and we estimate that over the next decade, nearly 100,000 new cell towers will need to be constructed in the United States in addition to the 170,000 that already exist to meet the capacity needs of the booming wireless communication industry. Understanding the safety concerns people have and the actual health risks of using cellular technology will continue to be an uphill battle for cellular carriers unless they change their current PR strategy.

Disturbing Wireless Industry Leasing Trends

Recent Wireless Leasing Trends...

Cell phone service providers are in business to make money. Cell towers generate a lot of income for people who lease property to the carriers because they provide us a valuable service. Unfortunately over the past year we have noticed a disturbing trend among some cell phone carriers.

Select wireless carriers have contracted third party vendors to send out letters and contact private wireless landlords and municipalities regarding their cell tower leases. The cellular companies have been telling landlords through their vendors that they need to renegotiate because the tower is "underperforming" and they want a reduced rental or they will walk away from the property.

Because of recent wireless industry mergers, cell tower landlords have been approached and often bullied into renegotiating their rents due to "industry consolidation". Property owners and municipalities experiencing difficulties with cellular carriers should not hesitate to contact Airwave Management at 888-313-9750 and speak with Steve Kazella, our resident cell tower leasing expert consultant, and all-round nice guy. Mr. Kazella has successfully negotiated more cell tower leases over the past decade than 4 out of 5 cell tower consultants who chew sugarless gum.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Don't We Have Enough Cell Towers?

The simple answer is no, we don't have enough cell towers in North America. And actually, compared to many European countries, the wireless network in the USA is lagging several years behind. For example, a country like Hungary where people had to wait 20 years for the national phone monopoly MATAV to install a land line until 1989, now has a wireless network far superior to that of the USA's.

As the wireless indusrty grows, there will be a huge increase for additional wireless coverage for existing coverage areas and in rural regions where there is little or no cell phone service to meet growing capacity and demand. As people start utilizing cell phones that have email and internet capabilities, increasing demands will be put on cell towers to deliver BANDWIDTH. As more and more subscribers are added to a particular network (the more phones they sell) the more their coverage shrinks around a given cell tower. In order to meet COVERAGE and CAPACITY demands, they need more cell sites.

Let's use the pizza pie analogy. You have a party. You invite 10 friends. You order 5 large Pizza's. Then 10 more friends show up that you weren't expecting and you start running out of pizza rather quickly, so you need to order another 5 pizza pies. Same goes for cell towers.

Airwave wants to inform municipalities that over the next decade, nearly 100,000 new cell towers will need to be constructed in the United States in addition to the 170,000 that already exist to meet the capacity needs of the booming wireless communication industry. That doesn't include the expansion and upgrades that will needed to be performed on existing cell sites.

Got coverage?