A few questions many have asked are, "If Big Telecom is so.. well.. big.. why is it I can’t get perfect reception everywhere with my wireless phone? Can’t they afford putting up towers where need be?"

Yes, Big Telecom can afford it, and rather easily.

Why don’t they do it?

The answer is something most people don’t give a second thought to but is rather important.

Cell towers are just plain ugly.

What happens is that when one is erected, it can in fact devalue the properties in the immediate area because at present there is no way to make one look good. (Or is there? More on that in a moment.)

In the real estate market, an easily-seen cell tower can be considered to be what’s known as a blight. The term blight is ordinarily used to describe things such as urban decay, however it can be applied to anything that devalues a region due to its bad looks – and cell towers certainly qualify in that respect.

Big Telecom has come up with, shall we say, interesting ways of getting arrays up to expand their coverage areas.

One very common example in the U.S. are arrays mounted to water towers. Whenever you see a water tower with short poles attached to it, chances are very good it’s an array for wireless phones.

Sometimes you will see cell towers on school property because it’s owned by the state. However there are also many instances where a Telco tried to do that and failed miserably because of the uproar by local residents.

In other instances you will see towers on a large business property, such as airports, the edge of a large parking area and so on.

Any place that a Telco can throw up a wireless tower and has the proper clearance to do it will do so, and quickly. And yes, they pay handsomely to lease the property because they know they’ll make the money back easily.

However, the places in which they can erect towers are getting fewer, and the smaller towns want absolutely nothing to do with them. It simply doesn’t matter how many dollar signs Big Telecom waves at them, because the end result is property devaluation which costs more in the long run. Absolutely nobody wants an ugly cell tower in their backyard.

Using Florida (where PCMech is based) as an example of how anti-tower/anti-pole some places are, there are several areas where the only poles seen are for street lights. Everything else is underground and done so by design.

Power and cable TV video/audio/data communications can easily be transmitted via underground wires – but you can’t do that with wireless phones based on the nature of how they work. There must be towers and they must be high in the air.

What’s the solution for an ever-increasing need for wireless phone reception?

Because necessity is the mother of invention, here are a few things you may see in the near future.

A better looking tower

It is possible to make a tower look elegant. France has one. You may have heard of it.

What needs to happen is that Telco’s absolutely must pay stricter attention to industrial design. Right now what they do is just slap up decidedly ugly looking arrays anywhere they can and then call it a done deal. That in itself is just plain wrong because it destroys the landscape.

Being that Big Telecom knows they’ll make millions from any tower they put up, would it not be out of the question for them to spend a few extra bucks on something that looks nice?

And by the way, if you happen to be an industrial designer, do us all a favor and start drafting good looking cell towers. Submit them to Verizon, Sprint and AT&T and tell them we’re sick of the ugly stuff. Develop something cool like an array that looks like a crescent moon or a star that can be lit up at Christmas time or something like that. If your idea works, remember, I gave you the idea. Send some of your big check to me when you cash in on it.

Flagpole-style towers

This is a tower that’s less ugly than a standard one. They’re somewhat skinnier than a standard one and painted green to match the landscape more.

This is only slightly better than what we have now. I admit it’s a step in the right direction, but there are still towns that won’t go for it as it’s just a poor attempt at masking a cell tower’s ugliness.

As said above, some good industrial design must be put into these things if Big Telecom expects towns – particularly the smaller ones – to accept these things.

Was your town "uglied" up by a cell tower?

Or have you seen Big Telecom put up arrays in some crazy locations?

Tell us your story.

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