Clock Continues on FCC T-Mo, Sprint Review

 
The FCC denied a petition from 11 associations asking the agency to stop or pause the clock on the Commission’s review of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.


The associations — including the Rural Wireless Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and the Communications Workers of America — said the carriers need to supply more information about their license holdings in each market and that the current information is hard to access. The associations also said a pause would give the public more time to assess the pending transaction, as the agency has several complicated proceedings pending.

T-Mobile wants the FCC’s merger review to proceed without delay. It asked the Commission to deny the request, saying the spectrum information provided is more than adequate. Continue Reading

FCC Chairman Gets a New Perspective on Towers

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai now has tower-climbing cred. He climbed all the way up a telecommunications tower near De Beque, Colorado yesterday, wearing the appropriate safety gear. The more than 130-foot self-support tower is owned by SBA Communications. The site is off I-70, and on the travel route between Aspen and Grand Junction, according to the National Association of Tower Erectors, which helped organize the activity. Pai Tweeted the structure “felt like Everest.”
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A Tower Owner Faces a Drug-Related Catastrophe and Bankruptcy

The tower industry has a problem that gets overlooked way too often, according to Kathy Gill, CEO of Tower Safety and Instruction.  Derek Case, a mid-tier tower owner of D&K Nationwide Communications located in Bristol, CT agrees and is a first-hand witness to its devastating impact: drug abuse. It has cost Case millions over the past year and has taken the life of one of his crew.
While Gill was providing safety training for D&K, she became familiar with the recent climbing fatality that impacted Case both financially and emotionally.

“I could sense his pain,” Gill said. “And it didn’t just affect him but his family, his employees, even his vendors.”

Gill said D&K followed all the rules and had a good reputation for work performance. They trained their employees on required industry standards, provided all the worker PPE and performed 12-panel drug testing she said.  The company was projected to do $5-to-$6 million that year, with a full plate of cell tower construction and maintenance work ahead of them. Case cites his crew member’s tragic death for lost business D&K ended up suffering.  Now he faces possible bankruptcy. He has downsized to six employees with the cuts affecting former workers who have been forced to move themselves and their families to find new jobs. Case paid for the funeral and family expenses for his fallen employee. Continue Reading

FAA Lighting Letter Leaves Contractors In the Dark

 
A recent letter from the FAA Office of Airport Safety and Standards has created an unsettling atmosphere in the tower lighting community.  “This is a big deal,” one lighting executive told Inside Towers, wishing to remain off the record.  Industry execs are concerned about the ramifications of the FAA invalidating the certification of lighting systems with non-OEM components.

Inside Towers obtained a copy of the letter dated June 27, 2018 that came from the FAA’s Khalil Kodsi, P.E., PMP, Manager, Airport Engineering Division. 

“Only entire systems and devices with production parts are certified under the current FAA certification program and Advisory Circular (AC) 150/535-53C. The certification is invalidated for a product modified with non-OEM replacement parts or non-production components.”

“The purpose of this letter is to rescind the previous letter dated Nov. 22, 2005. The Nov. 22, 2005 letter established an interim procedure to certify entire devices with non-Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) components installed. The decision to rescind this industry letter is due to the myriad of logistical issues as well as the follow-up quality assurance provisions related to the certification of equipment with non-OEM replacement parts installed.”  Continue Reading

Court Counters Tribes’ Pleas for Tighter Control

UPDATE A federal appeals court yesterday denied a motion to stay an FCC order to ease wireless infrastructure siting by exempting most small cells on non-Tribal lands from environmental and historic review.  

The Seminole Tribe of Florida most recently asked the D.C. Circuit for a stay, pending the court’s review of the Tribe’s Petition for Review. The Seminoles joined with 15 other tribes, plus the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States in fighting the FCC, saying the agency did not properly consult with Tribes before adopting the order in March and its decision violated federal law. The Seminoles said in their July 18 motion the decision: “effectively eliminates the Tribe’s ability to collect fees for its review of macro cell towers and gives industry applicants the discretion to contract important review and mitigation work to non-tribal entities unqualified to protect the Tribe’s historic and cultural properties.”

The order was due to go into effect July 2. Sprint and CTIA recently joined the FCC in the case, Inside Towers reported last week. The Commission consistently said it consulted with the Tribes before making the change and did not violate federal law. Continue Reading

New OTMR Rules Still Come Up Short for Tower Industry

 
The FCC confined its new One-Touch, Make-Ready rules to simple pole attachment work. Utilities and attachers told the Commission this will apply to most of the upcoming pole work. The agency also updated its other pole attachment rules in the Report and Order. (See more about what the new OTMR rules entail further down.)  

Like the BDAC, it defines complex make-ready as: “transfers and work within the communications space that would be reasonably likely to cause a service outage(s) or facility damage, including work such as splicing of any communication attachment or relocation of existing wireless attachments.” Complex work is not part of OTMR “at this time,” says the agency in the order.   Continue Reading

Some Small Contractors Turn to Utilities for Faster Payment

UPDATE As we hear from more readers experiencing late payment terms affecting smaller contractors asked to do tower and network work, a new theme is emerging — diversification. As a way to buffer their cash flow against late payment from some in the telecom industry, certain readers tells us they’re taking work from other types of industries to keep their businesses afloat.

One contractor in the southeast told Inside Towers in an interview: “For three years, I have experienced the dreaded year-end non-payment issue with the same carrier. We have to make contingency plans with our financial institution, assuming we may not receive any payments during the latter half of the fourth quarter. It all gets paid in mid-January.”

He has begun taking different types of work because, “Somebody dragging out $300,000 over 90 to 120 days can be death. You lose vendors and employees” that way, he said. Continue Reading