Alton cell tower

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by ghfromaltonbay

I was getting 3 and sometimes 4 bars at the top of the hill at Sandy Point last summer and also could access the internet on my phone. I even could access the internet via cell phone near the cottages just below the wall behind the restaurant.

The tower at Prospect Mt. gave pretty good coverage further out the bay than by the town docks. The terrain behind JP China was enough of a block to knock down the signal some. Out by Sandy Point, the signal was much better. On really windy days where we would just anchor on the town dock side of Sandy Point, we would have 3-4 bars there as well.

The new tower will help on East Side dr. and rte 11 with their little nooks and crannies. Also, up on the hills on the west side of the bay.

[AmantiDelLago]

Driving through the bay today and up Rte 11 towards Gilford I had great 4G service past Jesus Valley Rd and by the scenic view pull off. After Mt Major it dropped off. Going down the hill by Minge Cove Rd service was the same as it has been. Seems like West Alton towards Gilford won't be picking up anything from the new site.

[jjackman]

Has anyone got an update on the cell phone service in West Alton? Thanks!

[Gearhead]

As far as I can tell there isn't any Verizon on the tower yet. AT&T is working though.

They said that it should be up and running by the end of the month. Which month is the question, I guess.

[Gearhead]

As I type on my iPhone 4, I have 2 bars. Even with occasional 3 bars my phone will not call from my house in East Alton. My mother-in-law however was here this evening and she had full signal with her iPhone 5C. Is it a 4G or LTE thing? I don't need data, I just need my phone.

Does anyone in the know have any ideas? Maybe I need to update my roaming tomorrow when I get a signal and try again.

Thanks,
GH

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by Gearhead

As I type on my iPhone 4, I have 2 bars. Even with occasional 3 bars my phone will not call from my house in East Alton. My mother-in-law however was here this evening and she had full signal with her iPhone 5C. Is it a 4G or LTE thing? I don't need data, I just need my phone.

Does anyone in the know have any ideas? Maybe I need to update my roaming tomorrow when I get a signal and try again.

Thanks,
GH

I am still sitting here with 1 bar of 3G on my Verizon Droid. When the kids were here the other day, 4 bars 4G AT&T. Grrrrrrrr.

Does the mother in law have AT&T, Sprint, or TMobile? Those are the other services that are supposed to be on the tower.

[Gearhead]

That's the kicker! She has Verizon. I think it's a 4G tower or something.
Maybe new installations are 4G because they are the newest technology and anyone with a 4G phone is backwards compatible in case there aren't 4G sites nearby Burt if you have a 3G phone then you are out of luck.

I'm just guessing though.

[riverat]

Originally Posted by upthesaukee

I am still sitting here with 1 bar of 3G on my Verizon Droid. When the kids were here the other day, 4 bars 4G AT&T. Grrrrrrrr.

Does the mother in law have AT&T, Sprint, or TMobile? Those are the other services that are supposed to be on the tower.

I and my wife have Sprint and notice no difference when at the bay or the dump. And Sprint coverage map still shows us in roaming area.

[gokart-mozart]

Originally Posted by jjackman

Has anyone got an update on the cell phone service in West Alton? Thanks!

I drive 28 from Wolfeboro to Alton and back every day, I have a Verizon iPhone 4S.

I have not noticed any change in signal strength or service yet. Signal southbound starts to drop @ St. Katherine Drexel, is down to 1-2 bars and 1x service after 28A, and most calls are dropped after the second hill. Coming back, I have 3G to Bay Hill Road, then drops off rapidly, no service to 1 bar 1x at the bottom of the first hill, 3G not back until Chestnut Cove Road.

I doubt very much that there is a Verizon radio on that tower at this point. Hope it's coming.

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by Gearhead

That's the kicker! She has Verizon. I think it's a 4G tower or something.
Maybe new installations are 4G because they are the newest technology and anyone with a 4G phone is backwards compatible in case there aren't 4G sites nearby Burt if you have a 3G phone then you are out of luck.

I'm just guessing though.

Verizon is not up and running on the new tower. I have a 3G phone and my wife has a 4G phone. We are across the bay from the tower. Depending on where we are on Rte 11 depends on how good a signal we get. When we can physically see Prospect Mt, south of the Alton traffic Circle, we will have 3-4 bars of coverage. When we get back into the nooks and crannies of Rte 11, we have a few spots of no coverage, generally 1-2 bars.

West Alton has no new towers, and I don't know how the new tower on the east side of the bay, near Echo Point (Bowman Rd off rte 28) will help over at West Alton. Time will tell. It should help some, and perhaps will reach into West Alton Marina, and to the Sand Bar.

Gearhead, can't explain why Mom would have a good signal and you don't and you are both on Verizon. As I have said on this thread, when my kids are here with ATT phones, I grit my teeth and smoke comes out my ears. With the wife and I, no better signal than we had last year as the leaves came off the trees last fall.

[Gearhead]

Well thanks everyone for the detailed answers. I guess all of us will just have to wait and see what happens with the tower. I can't wait much longer Verizon...

[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!