In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives [telecom]

The brother of my son's best friend, who was also the best man at his wedding, was killed falling from a tower he was working on. Not a cellular tower, however. I believe it was a TV antenna tower.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

I read the article, and found it somewhat misleading and not very informative--I don't think it defines the problem very well.

First, it seems to focus on the "3G" upgrade. But wasn't there a big rush to build cell phone towers in the first place when cellular service first came out? At that time, many new towers were required to be built from scratch--what was the injury experience then?. Further, didn't towers all have to be upgraded during the conversion of analog to digital?

Secondly, it makes it sound as if a cell phone tower worker is a unique new occupation. But there are many towers out there, such as television and radio, and there used to be a several networks of microwave towers. There are a great many towers to carry high tension electric power lines. In addition, when new buildings and bridges are erected, there is a craft known as "iron workers" who build the raw steel skeleton; this group has always had to deal with the challenge of working in dangerous high places in a fast paced environment. (see G. Talese, "The Bridge", about building the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.) Indeed, communication line construction hazards go way back-- builders of Western Union telegraph lines faced a variety of hazards.

Third, it seems to blame the cell phone carriers for the accidents. The real culprit is _outsourcing_, but that is a separate issue (a valid and troubling issue, to be sure). The carriers, like any competitive business, want to minimize costs to maximize profits so they outsource to very 'lean' businesses. Traditional landline carriers and cable companies also outsource work to independent contractors.

To me, the best solution in the existing environment is for workplace regulators to properly enforce the safety rules.

This is true. However, the guys who do broadcast tower work for the most part are trained professionals, not cowboys. We have a number of old-line tower companies in this area which have been in business for decades and have good safety records and people who do good work. They also charge a lot of money.

The new generation of kids who are taking the cellphone contracts are often cowboys. They are taking contract jobs that the old-line companies would never accept because of the insanely low rates. Many of them are not well-trained.

There are tower contractors who are safe, and there are kids working out of their garage who have had minimal training. There is a difference between the two. The current explosion of fly-by-night tower companies is the result of the cellphone companies throwing a lot of business on the market at very low rates very quickly.

Broadcast stations outsource tower work as well, but they do not have a lot of the cowboys in their pay.

Well, it's made worse by the safety rules being in constant flux and everything changing all the time. My safety belt was allowed under the OSHA rules five years back, but it's not allowed under current regulations. I still use it, and I go up on a tower a couple times a year for something or another. It's a violation, yes, but it's in a different league than free climbing.

You cannot enforce all the rules all the time, all you can do is let the cowboys kill themselves. After enough of them have been killed, the kids will start becoming reluctant to take silly risks for insanely low pay.

--scott