Fixed Wireless Technology

Building a Tower, Part 1: Planning and Permissions

MapleNet Wireless builds towers for other companies, so we called and asked them to tell us about the process.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [January 30, 2009]

Elkhart, Ind.-based MapleNet Wireless started out as an ISP but has moved on. The company still builds towers for other ISPs, but the recession-proof verticals appear to be education and utilities.

"We're building about 40 to 50 towers each year," says Gene Crusie, MapleNet Wireless founder and president.

When I asked about the process of building a tower, Steve Carender, MapleNet's national sales manager, sent me an outline—two pages, single spaced.

Planning and permissions take up the bulk of the time.

Planning starts with finding a site and notifying the authorities that you intend to build there.

Site
The company prefers to build on open land, but, if possible, to be near a building. Crusie and Carender insist on a bucket truck. "There's a very different noise picture 100 ft in the air versus what you'd see running a spectrum analyzer on the ground," Crusie says.

It's not enough just to run the analyzer for five seconds. If possible, the company prefers to run it for at least one day. Of course, if you run into problems, the wireless equipment is far more flexible than it was in the past. Crusie is pleased that the current equipment allows you to change frequencies and polarization remotely.

How do you deal with landlords? Crusie says that many have priced themselves out of the game by expecting rents that are too high. The national tower companies charge up front engineering fees that may make sense to a cellular company putting up a 12 radio node, but are prohibitive for a WISP that may be connecting just a few customers with a radio or two.

"We prefer to locate near an existing building," says Carender. "If you're next to the Sheriff or the Fire Department, you can put equipment inside the structure and it's easier to run power."

With an existing building, physical security is improved, and fencing is easier (I imagine that being at the Sheriff's office improves security greatly).

He adds that if you're undergoing an environmental review, you will find it easier to pass if you're in an industrial park.

Before you dig, even for you soil samples (which we'll discuss in a moment), make the phone call to the utility locator service and make sure that you're not hitting power, gas, sewage, or other vital services.

Before you decide where to place the tower, talk to the landlord about possible expansion plans. You don't want the tower to be in the way of an extension to the local primary school, for example.

In many areas, the tower has to be a certain distance from the property line. This "setback requirement" is generally 150 percent of the tower height, so a 180 foot tower would have to be 270 feet away from any and all property lines.

Soil samples are important. If you're MapleNet, you order engineered instead of off-the-shelf towers (more on that later), and part of the information you provide the tower company (Rohn, etc.) is the type of soil you're building on. In order to provide this information, you need to take soil samples.

Later, when you're building the tower, you have a soil engineer on site in case there's a pocket of sand or anything else unexpected, which may require you to revise your plans. The one thing you most want to avoid, however, is bedrock. You absolutely must know where the bedrock is. Luckily, this information is easier to obtain. You're more likely to find an unexpected pocket of sand than you are to hit bedrock by surprise.

"We have had to convene an emergency meeting," says Crusie. "We've had to get the soil engineer together with the manufacturer's tower engineer and change the plan."

The FAA
Now that you've got a site and plan, you need to notify the FAA. The FAA only requires builders to notify it of towers within a specific distance of an airport, but, Crusie says, MapleNet chooses to voluntarily apply with the FAA for all built structures so that the customer can have FAA documentation.

The procedure is easy, says Carendar. You need to know the form number: 7460. Then, go to the website, download the form, and submit it to the person responsible for supervising the state in which you're building the tower.

Approvals are final, but in some cases, denials can be appealed.

Any tower over 200 feet high needs a lighting kit. "It's the tower owner's responsibility to notify the FAA of any obstruction or lighting outage," says Carender. "The tower shows up on the map for a pilot's flight plans, so the owner needs to notify the FAA if the tower lights are out or malfunctioning."

There's an entire section of the FAA website on lighting, called oeaaa.faa.gov, which stands for Obstruction Evaluation / Airport Airspace Analysis (OE/AAA). The important document, at press time, was Advisory Circular 70/7460-1K, Obstruction Marking and Lighting (.pdf).

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