[BC] Talking about Cell Zoning

[Stanley Adams]

Well fellows, I am an RF Engineer just like many of you but instead of the
'Standard' or 'International Short Wave' or 'Frequency Modulation' sites, I
happen to do my experimentation at Sprint-Nextel.  And I am not a PE nor a
degreed engineer by the way, just learned it all by the seat of my pants.

I have done dozens of zoning meetings in our 12-country area and I have been
well prepared for every presentation.  Our attorney's come fully prepared
and we make all possible attempts to use co-location; but having said that,
it is impossible, especially for the PCS 2 GHz band operators to build a
site or co-locate just anywhere.  When you use less power than the light in
a refrigerator and you need to couple the signal to the road or, you might
need to really 'push' for a site because there is a need for in-building
penetration, then you have to make an aggressive appeal before many boards.
Nevertheless, an appeal based upon facts and statements of intent.

When professional companies do their work well, and lawyers are well versed
in communication law and state law then the process, works pretty good
unless the zoning board wishes to be really contrary.  In that case, we
attempt to work with them before the actual zoning meetings (in Shelby
County we have to go through 3 or 4 separate hearings that include the City
Council and the County Commissioners) and to eliminate as many of the
variables as possible. Sprint uses the services of Bolt, Cummings in
Nashville and surrounding area's and we all mourn the passing of Jon
Hastings who was a top-notch communications attorney.  We worked together on
a number of issues when I was with MCI as he represented MCI on the various
statewide communications boards and the state Regulatory Commission.

So it is just simply the fact, that all parties have to do their work right.
Moreover, there are too many shortcomings just to lay them at one or two
parties' feet.  This must be a true partnership.  That is how I approach and
I cannot vouchsafe for anyone else.


Now Scott, as to your offer of allowing Sprint to lease your 'cold' tower;
while that may an option for us, it does present a number of issues. (1) A
150 ft tower is too low for most 2 GHz applications unless we are in a dense
urban area where cell site density is already high. (2) Your unipole design
will effect us in two ways, number one, it will present a small degree of
signal blocking or shadowing, and it will also present about an additional
75K in construction costs to fully isolate our lines and equipment from your
RF field. In addition, it will further trouble us when we have to do antenna
azimuth changes and tilts to optimize site coverage. (3) We never try to
build within the protected radius of a station so that we do not have to
incur the expense of a structure detune (our structure--not yours) and also
the expense of either doing a basic AM proof on your directional system to
make sure that it has not drifted from where you said it was originally.
Although, at times, we do and I have written about that topic already on
this list; so, these are some of the reasons that we choose not to use AM
towers.  We want taller structures, central to our radius of coverage, which
is no more than about 2 miles in urban/suburban area's (at best)

Stanley Adams
Memphis