Sprint, Fire Officials Team Up For Cell Tower

Despite protests from the local community, the unusual alliance and 130-foot tower will benefit both cell phone users and emergency officials looking for fewer dropped calls.

1 minute read

April 5, 2006, 9:00 AM PDT

By David Gest

"Upper Chichester Township must hang up on its effort to block the Ogden Fire Company and a wireless company from building a 130-foot-high cell tower behind the fire house, a court has ruled.

U.S. Eastern District Court Judge John R. Padova ordered the township and its zoning hearing board to issue permits for construction of the pencil-like structure by April 30."

"The tower, to be built behind the firehouse at 4300 Namaans Creek Road 150 feet from the nearest home, will beam radio signals needed to plug a gap in the local communications system...

Without it, emergency calls are dropped, and rescue workers can't talk to each other from handheld radios while at disasters in the southwest part of Upper Chichester...The tower will also carry transmitters for Sprint.

Sprint will pay $1,400 a month to the fire company for the privilege of mounting a wireless telecommunications antenna on the tower. The firm said in court documents that its cell phone service was spotty near the Ogden fire station."

FULL STORY: Tower not just for babble

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 in The Philadelphia Inquirer

Government / Politics Technology Pennsylvania

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