New Cell Tower in the Keweenaw

[m8man]

A new tower was built by Verizon about 2 miles from where I live. It is in the Lake Linden area. There have been some rumors about AT&T renting some space on it as well but I'm not sure if they do that still. I noticed a couple of neat things as it was just completed in the last week. One is that there were two guys waaaaaay up when I took some shots, and the other is that the base comes to a point...I guess the later is for moving with the wind or whatever.. They had a ton of anchor lines too.

Here are a couple of shots.

m8man

 

[purproadking]

There is another one going up by Rogers bar in Watersmeet that should be done by winter. Also supposed to be Verizon and att

 

[whitedust]

There is another one going up by Rogers bar in Watersmeet that should be done by winter. Also supposed to be Verizon and att

That one is badly needed!!!!!!

 

[groomerdave]

Need one in Kenton way worse. At least some reception in Watersmeet for Verizon. I've been working in the "Paulding Triangle" (Watersmeet, Ewen, Bruce Crossing, Frost) all summer and can probably tell you every place a Verizon phone will work! Will be nice when all of these (19) new towers come on line which I hear is in Dec / January. That seems to coincide with Verizon's new 4G system that will be online around that time which will supposedly provide seamless coverage across the whole US. Guess we will see. Attached is a Verizon coverage map for the area.
Think Snow! -Dave

 

[mezz]

There have been some rumors about AT&T renting some space on it as well but I'm not sure if they do that still.
m8man[/QUOTE]

I had a conversation with my Cell provider on Friday, in light of the up-coming changes to AT&T service I had asked them about broadening their service area & the possibility of them leasing space on Verizon's tower. I was told they cannot, however, they were to be putting up a tower of their own. As many know, the service is limited to none existent between the outskirts of Dollar Bay to Lake Linden. It would be in AT&T's best interest to do someting soon, or they will lose out big time.-Mezz

 

[frnash]

More Keweenaw cell phone news

More cell phone news, see this from The Daily Mining Gazette, September 8, 2010: Keweenaw County officials discuss cell phone service, quoted here in part:

"The Keweenaw Mountain Lodge could soon be home to a new Verizon Wireless tower, providing cell service for hundreds of users around the Keweenaw.

• • •

[County chairman Joe] Langdon said there are still talks about putting a phone tower in place in Bumbletown."

 

[thebluff]

I am an authorized ATT wireless dealer. When the tower first came to Ontonagon, I was told (we were not yet dealers) that the tower was part of a federal program similar to (or part of) the rural electrification program that gets needed utilities to rural communities.

The tower is basically a federal grant and somehow awarded to a specific company to use. We were also told that due to it being rural there was no possibilty of other carriers being added...simply not enough traffic to split the business.

If that is all true, which I think it is, it is likely that some of these other rural towers are similar and multiple carriers probably isnt likely.

I wish I knew the process to be awarded a specific tower as it seems a bit odd to scatter these things around mix-match style. Must be a bid process of some sort. I know for us in Onto being ATT only, it would be of little use to be surrounded by Verizon towers. Vise-versa for others. From what I have read, Twin Lakes is ATT (good for us) however Mrsrunningbear says Watersmeet area is Verizon (bad for people in our area).

Ho-hum...maybe the feds should just take over all of it to be fair to all (sarcasm).

 

[zrjes]

More cell phone news, see this from The Daily Mining Gazette, September 8, 2010: Keweenaw County officials discuss cell phone service, quoted here in part:

Thanks Nash, Thats good to know!

It becomes a pain when you have to sit on a window sill in your kitchen in order to get a signal for your verizon wireless phone North of the Calumet area. I have been very Happy switching from Sprint to Verizon, and I really hope that they add these towers to aid the coverage issues on the northern end of the peninsula.

 

[bobsledder]

Quiet!

I am going to keep this quiet as I Can! My standard line before I go to the UP is "there is very limited cell service so our communication will be limited, love you honey"

 

[dcsnomo]

I am an authorized ATT wireless dealer. When the tower first came to Ontonagon, I was told (we were not yet dealers) that the tower was part of a federal program similar to (or part of) the rural electrification program that gets needed utilities to rural communities.

The tower is basically a federal grant and somehow awarded to a specific company to use. We were also told that due to it being rural there was no possibilty of other carriers being added...simply not enough traffic to split the business.

If that is all true, which I think it is, it is likely that some of these other rural towers are similar and multiple carriers probably isnt likely.

I wish I knew the process to be awarded a specific tower as it seems a bit odd to scatter these things around mix-match style. Must be a bid process of some sort. I know for us in Onto being ATT only, it would be of little use to be surrounded by Verizon towers. Vise-versa for others. From what I have read, Twin Lakes is ATT (good for us) however Mrsrunningbear says Watersmeet area is Verizon (bad for people in our area).

Ho-hum...maybe the feds should just take over all of it to be fair to all (sarcasm).

Not disagreeing with you since I am no longer in the cell phone biz, but it seems odd. Aren't towers owned by tower companies? As I understand it, the tower companies build the towers and lease the space to the carriers, the more carriers on a tower the more leases to the tower company and the greater ROI. Therefore, one would think that multiple carriers would use a new tower to increase coverage once the tower is built.

 

[thebluff]

makes sense but the rural electrification thing is what i was told by my people inside ATT prior to our connection with them.

keep in mind that it is really rural here, population is very small over a very large area. if there was a chance to make a profit, we probably would have had towers long ago. it seems to make sense to me that outside of areas like Marquette and Houghton that cell towers are subsidized when they go up.....but i have no first hand knowledge, only what i was told.

 

[crash0]

thebluff,

If I were you I would look into getting a Verizon Premium Retailer agreement. You know how much new lines pay and wouldnt want to miss out on the migration of locals to Verizon. The point is don't keep all your eggs in the ATT basket. Im just sayin.

 

[thebluff]

not sure how verizon works, but we are not allowed to be an authorized retailer and sell other services....that is the authorized retailer deal.

places like radio shack are allowed to pick up to 2 carriers, walmart does what they want to but we are exclusive....and i am pretty sure verizon operates similar for an authorized store.

there is not enough business in the northwoods to even make it feasible if possible. each carrier has its own phones so dual inventory would be required. cities like ironwood, houghton and marquette can handle both....but as i said, there is a reason the tower in ontonagon was funded federally. even if every single person in the county signed up for one carrier....it would be small potatoes.

ontonagon county is almost 1/2 the size the state of new hampshire but has 0.5% the people of that state. our per square mile population density is less than the population of the average subarban residential block in most other places.

the area between ironwood, marquette, houghton, iron mt......any towers are not there because they are huge money makers...execption of along US2.

 

[thebluff]

I have to stand corrected on at least some of the assumptions I made. I spoke last week with my ATT rep regarding the towers. He said that nearly all of the many towers that are going in in the West Yoop are being done by a private company that leases space out to the carriers.

He said that likely that both Verizon and ATT will end up on most all of these towers in the near future. ATT is spending a ton of cash from Marquette and west to upgrade its older towers (some in Marquette are really old) and to establish a presence on the new ones. Sounds like the next 12 months will change a lot for us all.

As for the Ontonagon tower, he said that Verizon is trying to establish a presence here too. He was pretty certain that this was a federally funded project that means that ATT owns it if that is the case.

As for Twin Lakes, he thinks this is one of the private towers. The news article about a lease with ATT could be deceiving since many of the towers utilize ATT as the land connection, a lease for the underground lines would happen no matter who's it was.

So....it sounds like coverage will get better for ALL of us soon. Good news, I sure think anyway!