Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property?

[LouNY]

Look at the positives:
The value of your property will drop every year as people find out about cell tower radio frequency issues and possible diseases. In 25 years your property taxes ought to approach zero. But, the value of your $2500 check will drop too. but a free desert somewhere (with a coupon).

That blinking red light on the top will eliminate the need for light lights in the house. Some lights are now brilliant blue-white, insist on these to trip any epilepsy reactions in your family.

When an airplane accidently hits one, you may be entitled to get your house replaced for free.

Jumpers fed up with life may ask you for favors in notifying next of kin. Maybe you'll meet some very nice people along the way.

Don't have to worry about a new neighborhood being built next door. They'll move on.

If it get's hit by lightning, and you can prove it with video, your YouTube Channel checks will be amazing.

Because they have their own standby generators, if your power goes out because the new data center needed extra juice for storing the advice on how to make change for a dollar, you can probably tap into their power supply without anyone knowing.

When they become obsolete (because satellite technology will replace them), there's a certainly LOT of steel and copper to be available for scrap!
But still, what a great place to mount security cameras !

Deer stand? Oh my !
Good luck. Better you get one than me....

I can look out my kitchen window and see two towers, even though I know that there are actually 5 antenna on the top of the mountain.

No change in value that I have seen,
No blinking lights on them,
Never seen a lightning strike on them,
Too far away for an extension cord,
It will be a long time till they become obsolete,
Got better places for cameras,
And better places for deer stands.

 

[Oaktree]

The availability of cellular service via satellite is slowing new tower construction.

How does that affect latency? It's bad enough already with cellphones...very easy to talk all over each other in a conversation.

 

[Oaktree]

Order the flip phone and paid $45+ and declined express shipping.

Phone arrived and I called in on December 24th asking if I can activate after Christmas… sure, no problem.

Called in today and during the 41 minute call learned account cancelled and I would have to start over and that plan no longer available… sounds like fraud to me.

I said I’m returning phone and was told max credit is $26

Meanwhile, I’ve already been billed for partial month service on an account they cancelled…

Did you pay with a CC for this? If so, I'd dispute the bill. Let them deal with the provider.

 

[kenmbz]

We use Ooma ip phone for our "land line". as we have lost power to the one cell tower we can barely get signal from.
The phone on WiFi has never worked well for us on iphone or Android.
It took years to get cell towers around here, in town there was no cell signal until maybe a decade ago.

 

[dodge man]

Glacier National Park. No cell service there and the phone booths actually work.

 

[bdhsfz6]

How does that affect latency? It's bad enough already with cellphones...very easy to talk all over each other in a conversation.

I think this will depend on the quality of the satellite link. Starlink is offering cellular service in some areas and their internet service latency is around 18ms. Not sure just how that will translate into cellular though.

 

[ponytug]

How does that affect latency? It's bad enough already with cellphones...very easy to talk all over each other in a conversation.

Starlink is/was better than our landline, which was copper for five miles into fiber, and thence into a poorly functioning "central office". If you are thinking of old fashioned satellite service where you practically had to say "Roger" at the end of a statement to let the other party know that it was time to speak, Starlink is not that. Issues with talking over each other tends to be a mono/duplex/sampling issue and thus are likely to plan/phone specific in my experience. If you have a limited bandwidth connection, you can check that the phone has the highest priority setting and that your phone plane has the highest network priority/quality setting. Many less expensive plans are set to lower network quality settings, which does give a lower quality of the connection (QCI) at least some of the time (e.g. network congestion).

QoS Class Identifier - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Typically, we have 20-25ms of latency on Starlink, which is below what humans notice. I have difficulties with friends on cell networks in fringe areas, or with phones/plans that run at reduce sampling rates, but not with Starlink.

Ooma was a bit hit or miss for us; when it suddenly had poor connection quality, a reboot fixed it, so it is something internal/specific to Ooma. I never found a fix, and Ooma did not seem to find one either, but it mostly worked.

8 Ways to Improve Your Phone's Signal Strength

No bars on your phone? Slow mobile data? Here are the top tested ways to fix your mobile signal.

www.pcmag.com

All the best,

Peter

 

[LouNY]

I think this will depend on the quality of the satellite link. Starlink is offering cellular service in some areas and their internet service latency is around 18ms. Not sure just how that will translate into cellular though.

Mine runs around 33ms, and using the phone on the wifi is very hit or miss.

 

[ultrarunner]

Did you pay with a CC for this? If so, I'd dispute the bill. Let them deal with the provider.

Yes I did… the AI response is we want you back… tell us how we can improve, etc.

I also filled out FCC complaint and wouldn’t you know one of the boxes is problem transferring existing number.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

This is what I said here over 3 years ago and at the board of supervisor's meeting one said "we only have one skyline". In my county anything over 200ft must have a flashing light on it. I know from my electonics background RF energy deminishes with distance.
A lot of things considered safe years ago like cigarettes finally are shown to be harmful later. Before I wrote:

We formed a group years ago to not allow tall cell towers in this county. We hired an expert to attend board meetings.
The upside is the property owner gets a monthly check.
Lots of downsides though. The tower leases space to providers so it becomes a Christmas tree. 200ft & taller must have a flashing light on top. Access must be available 24/7 for service, etc. Yes, it can really bother the neighbors as well as the skyline. Owner needs to check with their insurance agent about liability. Who takes it down if/when technology changes (i.e., switch to satellite).
There's only one skyline...how will it be affected?
Cell tower companies would rather have a few 300ft towers than many shorter ones, but our proposal was existing structures can be used: power line towers, inside church steeples, on telephone poles, etc.

 

[ultrarunner]

Finish height under 40’

By ordinance must be below ridge line so the thousands of acres used for cattle grazing out of luck for cell signal…

Site does have 270 degree line of sight to new multimillion dollar development… same folks that complain about dropped calls and wanted tower are the same that pushed for restricted urban limit that prevents the 65 acre farm to be developed…

 

[LouNY]

Finish height under 40’

By ordinance must be below ridge line so the thousands of acres used for cattle grazing out of luck for cell signal…

Site does have 270 degree line of sight to new multimillion dollar development… same folks that complain about dropped calls and wanted tower are the same that pushed for restricted urban limit that prevents the 65 acre farm to be developed…

Typical Not In My Backyard tweets.
We have had several similar incidents in our Township, towers and such that would benefit our residents get shutdown by complaints from individuals and groups that are not only not in our Town but not even in our County. But a communication tower to short to be usable by our townspeople, but would reach many people in the complaining area got through the regulators. It was short enough that it wouldn't interfere with the view from the Battle Field area but still provide them with improved cell service. If built a bit taller it would have reached many areas in our Town but it would have been taller then the hills blocking it so visible from the aided area. This crap has been going on for decades.

 

[ultrarunner]

The local WA fire station has a communication tower…

A cell provider offered to lease space and raise the tower 25’

The lease would have added long term revenue and the tower was already there.

Never happened… so across the water the provider built a large tower and the money went to another community.