Issues Surrounding Installation of a Cell Tower?

But They Look Terrible as Trees asks: "My company has been approached by a developer who wants lease a section of our property to install a cell phone tower. The tower would be somewhere between 50 and 110 meters tall and would be located about 250 meters from our main building. I am curious what types of interference and other issues anyone may have noticed having a cell phone tower in the vicinity of their facility, such as disruption of 802.11, VHF radio, aesthetic issues, complaints from neighbors, or truly bizarre plots. Has anyone built their own tower and then leased space to providers on the tower?"

Comments

radio interference

[eagl]

I dunno how bad a tower would be, but my cell phone causes a lot of interference on my car radio. Setting my cell phone down near my computer also results in an occasional squeaking or beeping from my computer speakers.

Would a tower somewhere on your property be better or worse? Dunno. Maybe you should take your car and some gear to someone else's cell tower and see if it causes interference.

Yes

[Schezar]

"t'll look like crap and will deminish property values.

Diminished property values are a good thing for people who don't plan to move any time in the near future. Lower property values = lower property taxes. Considering that this is a commercial property, he shouldn't give a rat's arse about "property values."

"If you've got neighbors, they'll hate you for it."

These are the same neighbors who also complain that their cell phones get poor reception. NIMBY doesn't quite cut it: these people are BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). Luckily, they can't tell you what to do, and aren't likely your customers. They're not an issue at all.

"You'd have to give me a boat load of cash to even consider it"

Lots of land owners, even residential ones, lease plots of land to cell towers. They pay you a large monthly sum for the privilage, and usually throw in free cell phones. I'd say it's quite reasonable.

Re:Um

[Andy Dodd]

Yeah, many people don't realize there are numerous ways to hide a cell site, especially if there's an existing tall building.

There's a Verizon site on the top of Barton Hall on Cornell's campus, and there's basically no way anyone who doesn't know it's there and is looking for it can see the antennas - They're sector antennas on the sides of a cupola painted the same color as the building. Plus in that particular case they're dwarfed by the amateur radio club's monster HF Yagi. :)