NYT on Cell Phone Tower Controversy

prostoalex writes "The New York Times discusses the controversy of placing cell phone towers on top of hills, a practice to which many people object. According to the article, people frequently complain about the visual impediment and are afraid that property values will decline or some health damage will be done with radio waves. At the same time, people get quite irritated when proper phone service is not provided by the operators, and the calls keep dropping or coverage is poor outside of densely populated areas. Phone companies also lease the land to place the cell phone tower for $30,000-$50,000, which is attractive to many landowners, but some, like Sammy Barsa from NYT article, find themselves persona non grata in the community."

Comments

It's actually a pretty sweet deal

[Ahkorishaan]

As someone who has had a cell phone tower on their property, I think it's a pretty sweet deal. And they aren't really that intrusive anymore, some designs are actually rather low profile, of course those are only meant for rural town coverage, but it's still not so bad.

And the 28,000 we recieve a year is as much as the income of a low-income family.

Re:It's actually a pretty sweet deal

[eUdudx]

In passing, I mention my kin in NH who declined the (approx) $10k/year becaue of previous experience with property owners who allowed the addition of 7/24 blinking lights on their horixon. It was as if they didn't want to be remembered as the ones who "were the beginning of the end" in their rural area.

Church steeples are a good spot

[_merlin]

In Australia, they've started renting space in church steeples. They make the antennae very unobtrusive, and their RF and SONET gear doesn't take up much space. Pumps quite a bit of money into churches that can be used for community projects, aid, missions, etc.

Re:Not just cell towers

[rxmd]

I find the negative view of windfarms odd. They're beautiful things.

I have a friend who lives north of a large wind farm here in Northern Germany. What drives him crazy (besides the sometimes rather considerable noise) is that the shadow from the rotor blades passes through his living room every couple seconds.

I do like the idea of wind farms in gerneral, but I also see that there might be a problem with having one in your back yard.