Watch Out, DeKalb. ATT is Getting Bigger

A huge cell tower and a dark, ominous storm cloud loom over an
ATT retail store in the Publix shopping plaza on Hugh Howell Road in
Tucker, GA.  Why is it that the cell towers made it onto the July 2011
ballot, but no one in the legislature wants to talk about them?
Where do we go from here?  

(click to read full story)

Wishful Thinking

We wish we could say that our schools and neighborhoods were safe from the intrusion of huge and ugly radiation spewing cell phone towers (like the one pictured here).  

We wish we could trust that our school board and school administration were focused on education, not securing themselves a nice slush fund while ruining our communities in the process. 

 But, we can't.  

That's why we continue to follow the clues that might help us stay out in front of them and their plans, and this latest announcement from ATT might be important.  (text included in article below this commentary.)

We've highlighted some of the pertinent content below in case you do not have time to read the article in its entirety.  But, even more importantly, you will want to check for any Alltel FCC permits that might be located near your home or school to determine if there are any old ones that ATT could have acquired along with the existing already-built towers.  Many times, these companies get the permits from the FCC and then sit on them for years before deciding to build.  Then, they can quickly get the special land use permits, or other land disturbance permit that is required by local law, and build without the public finding out.  

Normally, there would have to be a sign posted for 30 days at the location to alert the public about a hearing in front of the commissioners and Director of Planning in DeKalb County.  But, our county office is a bit distracted right now since the CEO Burrell Ellis had is home invaded a few days ago upon issue of a search warrant by a grand jury investigating problems with the Watershed Management Group.  And, remember, we were told that the school system can do whatever they want if the construction is for educational purposes.  

Superintendent Akinson's announcement about e-books could be a great excuse to claim an educational purpose, but it will not hold up in court.  Cell towers are not necessary to read content on a screen.  And there is no educational value to providing books in one format over another.  It's like saying do you want paper or plastic bags at the grocery.  Does it really matter?  

If she did try to show an educational value to this misguided decision, she would be hard pressed to find a school system that has improved as a result of going digital in any format, and certainally none the size of DeKalb.  In fact, in other states there are Attorney General investigations taking place right now to determine if there is criminal fraud taking place and there is definitely no educational benefit to the children when the money intended for their benefit is being stolen from them.  

The original 12 schools are mapped above.  Most of these T-mobile contracts with the school system appear to be expired, but the money has not been accounted for in any documentation we have been able to locate.  The only sites that still have contracts with valid expiration dates are Narvie J. Harris and Lakeside, but Lakeside's contracts is not signed by T-mobile so we are unsure if it is valid.  And the Narvie contract mentions "Panthersville" which is the nearby stadium that does look like it already has a cell tower, so we are not clear on whether there is actually one intended for the school grounds or not.

We Need Your Help, Too!

At Get the Cell Out - ATL, we are doing our best to keep our schools and communities informed about anything related to the cell towers, which voters said by a large majority that they did not want to see at our schools.  We believe there was more to the push for the towers than just the money or even the coverage at Lakeside.  We have been on a mission to find the answers and stay ahead of the game because we do not want to see a threat to our safety, property and health be another reason to drive good families away from our  area.  

Check for new tower permits near your address here:
http://antennasearch.com/

But, ultimately, we cannot do it all without your help.  So, if you live near a site that might have an old AllTell FCC permit, or you are not sure, or your school was on the original list of 12 targeted by the school board, then please take time as soon as possible to search the database at http://antennasearch.com/.  Plug in your address and you will see a list of towers within a four mile radius.  If you see one near your school, click  on it and it will tell you who owns that license.  This is the first step ATT will need before they can build.  So, the information you see will be the same thing they use to ask for a county building permit.  

Help Us Help You!

We can help you speak out at any public hearings in order to stop the permit from being issues, if such meetings are held.  But, first we have to know about the threat before we can determine the best course of action.  So, if you find that there are AllTel tower permits out there and they appear to be in residential zoned parts of the county, or right on public school grounds, please let us know as soon as possible.  You can send an email to: sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com.  We have several attorneys we may be able to get you in touch with who are aware of this situation and can fight to stop the towers from going up near your home or school.

And, don't worry, this is one lawsuit that won't cost the school system since it is between you and the tower company.  And, your have the right to collect attorney fees under the FCC Telecommunications Act of 1996 so long as you bring forward your protest within the 30 day shot clock window that is mandatory before a building or land use permit can be issued.  

Now... on to the news....

From TechnoBloom Technology Blog:  

AT&T acquires Alltel network to increase coverage and speed

AT&T is one huge company and it has no problem buying small telecommunications companies to increase even further. According to a press release issued today, AT&T acquired Atlantic Tele-Network Inc’s retail business. The retail business actually operates under the Alltel Brand name. If you are not familiar with Alltel, the company has coverage areas in Georgia, Illinois, Idaho, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina. The network is considered to be a CDMA network and is the same technology used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint. AT&T has plans to convert the CDMA towers over to GSM in order to increase the overall coverage they provide in those areas already.

Both AT&T and AllTel customers will benefit with better and faster data connections after the acquisition. Once the deal is complete, those consumers on the Alltel network will need to upgrade their phones to work on the AT&T network, but the company did not provide any specific details regarding that right now. The deal is set to be closed during the second half of 2013, according to the report and then other details will be revealed. AT&T will not be the first mobile company to own Alltel, in fact Verizon bought the company back in 2009.

When the deal with Verizon Wireless went through, the FCC made the company divest more than 100 markets. At that time, AT&T went ahead and bought up 79 of those markets, leaving just 26 markets, which AT&T is looking to buy now. If you remember early last year AT&T tried to buy the T-Mobile network which was blocked by the FCC and turned out to be a big issue for AT&T. AT&T was looking for more towers and more spectrums and since the T-Mobile merger was blocked, the company was left looking elsewhere for both.

Now that AT&T has dropped away from T-Mobile, T-Mobile has been looking to buy MetroPCS. Other companies like Sprint have been looking for easy ways to expand as well and is in the middle of a merger with Clearwire. On the other side of the world, Softbank in Japan is looking to buy the Sprint network, so you can see that mergers and acquisitions are nothing uncommon in the wireless industry these days.