Alton cell tower

[Merrymeeting]

Does anyone have information on which wireless companies will be leasing space on the tower? AT&T and Verizon at minimum, I hope...

[Gearhead]

I don't know but it's lovely. When it goes live I think I'll have a little party.

[Den65]

Originally Posted by Merrymeeting

Does anyone have information on which wireless companies will be leasing space on the tower? AT&T and Verizon at minimum, I hope...

at&t will be the first cell carrier on the new alton tower, picture of first power meter at site. No info on when turn up will be not any antenna's on the tower yet. Will keep you updated as any info comes my way

[upthesaukee]

As mentioned earlier, the tower is up, no antenna arrays up yet.

I spoke with a Planning Board member today, who told me that best recollection is that it will be ATT, Verizon, Sprint, and TMobile on the tower. Last date for being in operation given was mid-September.

[Legionnaire70]

I finally saw the tower today, coming around the scenic view headed towards Alton. I sure hope Verizon is part of this tower and it eliminates the "dropped call, dead zone" from sandy point to Jesus valley road..

[Steveo]

There are a couple of arrays on the tower. Hopefully it won't be long now

[riverat]

For the last several weeks they have been power trucks along rt 28 and down bowman rd. running wires and for the last week or so they have been working on grading and widening bowman rd. I hope solves those dead spots in services going through hills.

[Den65]

Originally Posted by Steveo

There are a couple of arrays on the tower. Hopefully it won't be long now

We are waiting on Fairpoint to get the telco part of the site running, maybe by the end of the month.

[RLW]

The week before last I was watching the pole getting it's antennas being mounted while I was driving down Alton mountain. One day there would be one being mounted and 2 days later another. I haven't seen any additional being added this past week. Hopefully it will help us 1/2 way down the other side of the mountain.

[mcdude]

Why was the other thread closed?

ALTON — It’s been a long process, but a new cell phone tower has been erected on Miramichie Hill and one antenna has already been installed.
The cell phone tower is located near East Side Drive and according to Kevin Delaney, of Industrial Communications, the hardware and an AT&T antenna has been installed and should be up and running very soon if it’s not already in operation.
Delaney said that a Verizon antenna is planned to be installed and should be providing cell phone service by the end of the calendar year.

Let the distracted driving begin!

[RLW]

Originally Posted by mcdude

Why was the other thread closed?



Let the distracted driving begin!

Regarding more phone usage while driving or people looking at the tower, which is had to pick out even after you know where it is.

[LakeSnake]

Noticed I think two weeks ago that they have added "fake" branaches to the tower, so now it looks like a somewhat oversized pine tree. Makes it harder to see, which is a good thing as long as you are not speeding down the hill looking for it.

[IslandRadio]

Originally Posted by LakeSnake

Noticed I think two weeks ago that they have added "fake" branaches to the tower, so now it looks like a somewhat oversized pine tree. Makes it harder to see, which is a good thing as long as you are not speeding down the hill looking for it.

Hard to say. When I'm driving, if I see one of these "giant trees", I tend to look at it, thinking to myself "is that a tree?" and might study it for a split second. If I see a tower, I might (or might not) notice it, but otherwise ignore it because it's a tower, and they're everywhere and we're used to seeing them.

It's probably the un-naturalness of the "really big" tree - out of place on the landscape - that naturally draws attention.

Hopefully no one drives around staring at these things!!!

[RLW]

Originally Posted by LakeSnake

Noticed I think two weeks ago that they have added "fake" branaches to the tower, so now it looks like a somewhat oversized pine tree. Makes it harder to see, which is a good thing as long as you are not speeding down the hill looking for it.

From my viewing point on Alton Mountain it sure doesn't look like any type of foliage (Fake branches) have been added. It looks just like a plain old cell tower to me.

[LakeSnake]

RLW from my place on the mountain with binoculars there is definitely foliage added. Check it out. Still has the white transmitter but looks better than I thought it was going to.

[Merrymeeting]

It's not clear where McDude's quoted article comes from, or when.

Does anyone know if the tower is active yet or not?

[mcdude]

Originally Posted by Merrymeeting

It's not clear where McDude's quoted article comes from, or when.

Does anyone know if the tower is active yet or not?

this week's issue of the Baysider.

[RLW]

Originally Posted by LakeSnake

RLW from my place on the mountain with binoculars there is definitely foliage added. Check it out. Still has the white transmitter but looks better than I thought it was going to.

I gotcha,. I'm not using binoculars just the naked eye. If it has fake branches, they do not make much of a difference as it still looks like a cell tower when driving down the mountain to this ole geezer.

[RLW]

Originally Posted by LakeSnake

RLW from my place on the mountain with binoculars there is definitely foliage added. Check it out. Still has the white transmitter but looks better than I thought it was going to.

I have to put this note in as I have seen the tower you are talking about. I didn't realize that there are 2 towers over in the same direction. A little to the right there is another tower. I'm guessing that the one you see in the correct tower. Just hope the whole darn thing is up and working very soon and it helps many individuals get better signals.

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by RLW

I have to put this note in as I have seen the tower you are talking about. I didn't realize that there are 2 towers over in the same direction. A little to the right there is another tower. I'm guessing that the one you see in the correct tower. Just hope the whole darn thing is up and working very soon and it helps many individuals get better signals.

The one that is skinny and tall has actually been there for longer than we have been talking about the cell tower in Alton.

The cell tower only extends about 20 ft above the tree canopy.

[LakeSnake]

RLW - I must admit I never noticed the second tower to the right. Does anyone know what it is for? Is it on the same ridge line? I will have to check it out this weekend.

[AYF]

Originally Posted by Den65

We are waiting on Fairpoint to get the telco part of the site running, maybe by the end of the month.

I realize this thread is going on three years old, but does anyone know if there is optical fiber running to this tower?

[Weekend Pundit]

If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say the answer is yes. There's plenty of dark fiber running nearby and fiber backhaul for cell sites is something both Metrocast and TDS offer to the carriers. RF backhaul is generally used of fiber isn't available, but that's not the case here. A lot of 4G/LTE traffic is not easily handled by microwave backhaul, particularly if the path length between cells is long and the potential for very high data demand.

[AYF]

Originally Posted by Weekend Pundit

If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say the answer is yes. There's plenty of dark fiber running nearby and fiber backhaul for cell sites is something both Metrocast and TDS offer to the carriers. RF backhaul is generally used of fiber isn't available, but that's not the case here. A lot of 4G/LTE traffic is not easily handled by microwave backhaul, particularly if the path length between cells is long and the potential for very high data demand.

Thanks for the information. The organization I work for is looking to put in equipment that can do long distance wireless Internet to our location. It needs line of sight to do so and I've been looking for an appropriate transmission point that has a fiber connection. This cell tower look like a prime candidate.

[Weekend Pundit]

Originally Posted by AYF

The organization I work for is looking to put in equipment that can do long distance wireless Internet to our location. It needs line of sight to do so and I've been looking for an appropriate transmission point that has a fiber connection. This cell tower look like a prime candidate.

Are you looking to install something in the 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz bands, the 600MHz/700MHz LTE bands, or in some other band?

Is it WiFi, some form of WiMax, or a point-to-point private link?

[AYF]

Originally Posted by Weekend Pundit

Are you looking to install something in the 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz bands, the 600MHz/700MHz LTE bands, or in some other band?

Is it WiFi, some form of WiMax, or a point-to-point private link?

We are looking to use the AirFiber 5 from Ubiquiti which uses the 5 GHz band. These units have a good history of operation in all parts of the world:

https://www.ubnt.com/airfiber/airfiber5/



It would be a private point-to point link with paired devices. The AirFiber 5 needs line of sight, but does have a rated maximum distance of 100 kilometers. It has a maximum of 600 Mbps transmission capability under ideal conditions. We calculate we can get a minimum of 100 Mbps in this instance where we will be transmitting 25 kilometers.

The price of the AirFIber 5 is extremely reasonable - about $1000 for each unit.

[wifi]

I hope you can stand the sticker shock of renting a spot on a commercial tower and the costs of using their fiber. All the big guy cell companies require at least $1M insurance, plus approved installers, etc, etc. It's not like putting ham gear on your own stick. It looks like what you are planning to spend on equipment might be about what I would expect your monthly costs would run. Not intending to talk down, you may know everything there is to know about tower rentals.

Good Luck with your endeavor.

[AYF]

Originally Posted by wifi

I hope you can stand the sticker shock of renting a spot on a commercial tower and the costs of using their fiber. All the big guy cell companies require at least $1M insurance, plus approved installers, etc, etc. It's not like putting ham gear on your own stick. It looks like what you are planning to spend on equipment might be about what I would expect your monthly costs would run. Not intending to talk down, you may know everything there is to know about tower rentals.

Good Luck with your endeavor.

Yes, you are absolutely correct on the costs. We will be starting a similar install in Michigan shortly and the equipment price is the cheapest part of the deal. Tower rent is $375/month, 100 Mbps fiber is $950/month, tower installation is $4500, electrical work $3000, cable $1000, two UPS $1400, two switches $1000, tower inspection after installation $1000, and the one million dollar insurance policy.

The motivation for doing this is that the building complex in Michigan that will be the recipient of the connection currently uses three T1 lines to get 4.5 Mbps at a cost of $1000/month. The new setup will give them 100 Mbps for $1325/month. A 32% increase in monthly cost for a 22x increase in Internet speed.

If all goes well with the Michigan project, then next spring we will tackle the New Hampshire project for a complex that has similar needs.

[ITD]

Originally Posted by AYF

Yes, you are absolutely correct on the costs. We will be starting a similar install in Michigan shortly and the equipment price is the cheapest part of the deal. Tower rent is $375/month, 100 Mbps fiber is $950/month, tower installation is $4500, electrical work $3000, cable $1000, two UPS $1400, two switches $1000, tower inspection after installation $1000, and the one million dollar insurance policy.

The motivation for doing this is that the building complex in Michigan that will be the recipient of the connection currently uses three T1 lines to get 4.5 Mbps at a cost of $1000/month. The new setup will give them 100 Mbps for $1325/month. A 32% increase in monthly cost for a 22x increase in Internet speed.

If all goes well with the Michigan project, then next spring we will tackle the New Hampshire project for a complex that has similar needs.

Try these guys, they may be able to help. http://186comm.com/about/

[wifi]

Originally Posted by AYF

Yes, you are absolutely correct on the costs. We will be starting a similar install in Michigan shortly and the equipment price is the cheapest part of the deal. Tower rent is $375/month, 100 Mbps fiber is $950/month, tower installation is $4500, electrical work $3000, cable $1000, two UPS $1400, two switches $1000, tower inspection after installation $1000, and the one million dollar insurance policy.

The motivation for doing this is that the building complex in Michigan that will be the recipient of the connection currently uses three T1 lines to get 4.5 Mbps at a cost of $1000/month. The new setup will give them 100 Mbps for $1325/month. A 32% increase in monthly cost for a 22x increase in Internet speed.

If all goes well with the Michigan project, then next spring we will tackle the New Hampshire project for a complex that has similar needs.

It is too bad there isn't fiber going near your Michigan or NH project. I work with a company in sleepy Meredith (chuckle) that needed 100M, and Metrocast had some dark fiber running nearby and hooked them up.

I agree tho, UBNT equipment works well, have several systems up on the mountain working, undisturbed, for decades.

[Weekend Pundit]

Originally Posted by AYF

It would be a private point-to point link with paired devices. The AirFiber 5 needs line of sight, but does have a rated maximum distance of 100 kilometers. It has a maximum of 600 Mbps transmission capability under ideal conditions. We calculate we can get a minimum of 100 Mbps in this instance where we will be transmitting 25 kilometers.

I think you'll find that "maximum of 100 kilometers" is under ideal conditions. Your path of 25 km sounds do-able, but I do have to ask whether a path loss analysis has been or will be done. You may find that the connection may be slow, spotty or unavailable during rain or snow if it is heavy enough. This is particularly true at 5GHz. It also depends upon the modulation and FEC scheme that is used (assuming Forward Error Correction is used). Some modulation schemes are quite robust while others are more susceptible to weather related path loss and could lead to a rollback of data speed.

In any case, good luck with the RF link!