In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives [telecom]
- From: Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 22:32:36 -0400
In Race For Better Cell Service, Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives
Ryan Knutson, PBS Frontline, and Liz Day
ProPublica
May 22, 2012
This story was co-published with PBS Frontline, which will air a film
version today. Check local listings.
In the spring of 2008, AT&T was racing to roll out a new cell phone
network to deliver music, video and online games at faster speeds.
The network, known as 3G, was crucial to the company's fortunes.
AT&T's cell service had been criticized by customers for its
propensity to drop calls, a problem compounded when the company became
the sole carrier for the iPhone.
Jay Guilford was a tiny but vital cog in the carrier's plans.
On a clear evening in May, Guilford was dangling, 150 feet in the air,
from a cell tower in southwest Indiana. He had been sent aloft to take
pictures of AT&T antennas soon to be replaced by 3G equipment.
Work complete, Guilford sped his descent by rappelling on a rope.
Safety standards required him to step down the metal pole, peg by peg,
using a special line that would catch automatically if he fell. But
tower climbing is a field in which such rules are routinely ignored.
....
http://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-fatalities
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/cell-tower-deaths/in-race-for-better-cell-service-men-who-climb-towers-pay-with-their-lives/
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