T-mobile Cannot Justify a True Market "Need" for More Towers

Hey T-Mobile... It Doesn't Pay to Mess With DeKalb, Does It?

(click headline for details)

Angry, but well-behaved, parents and residents in DeKalb County, GA,
stood outside a T-mobile store in Tucker, GA, late last year to show
their disgust with the way the company and the school board worked together
to deny citizens the right to know what was being planned behind
closed doors.  The group marched up and down busy streets in the suburbs of
Atlanta and got the attention of local lawmakers and politicians.  This past July a referendum on the
ballot showed at 62% "NO" vote to cell towes on school grounds.  T-mobile is
expected to back out of its contract with the school system if its applications
for special land use and building permits are denied.

BAD NEWS (if you are T-mobile)

(click headline to read portions of this story, originally found on:  http://www.ajc.com/business/t-mobile-brings-back-1503999.html)
By PETER SVENSSON; The Associated Press:  NEW YORK — Unlimited wireless data is back. After sliding off the menu of cellphone plans, data plans with no caps are making a comeback at smaller wireless companies trying to compete with AT&T and Verizon.



Bargain basement discounts available soon
because, according to this article by the Associated
Press and printed in the Aug. 25, 2012, edition of the AJC,
T-mobile has capacity on their
network to sell... (aka, they do not have
a justified 'need' for any more towers!) 

Markus Schreiber, Associated PressFILE- In this Wednesday Sept. 19, 2007 file photo, an iPhone is displayed next to a T-Mobile sign, in Berlin. Unlimited wireless data is back. After sliding off the menu of cellphone plans, data plans with no caps are making a comeback at smaller wireless companies trying to compete with AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile USA, the nation's fourth-largest cellphone company, said Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, that it will start selling an unlimited-data plan again on Sept. 5, (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

 

T-Mobile USA, the nation's fourth-largest cellphone company, said Wednesday that it will start selling an unlimited-data plan again on Sept. 5, after stopping sales of such plans early last year. A day earlier, No. 5 carrier MetroPCS cut the price of its unlimited-data plan as a promotion for a limited time.

...

T-Mobile's new plan will cost $5 less than a regular data plan with 5 gigabytes of full-speed data. The advantage of the limited plan is that subscribers can turn their phones into "mobile hotspots," linking tablets and computers to the Internet through the phone. That's not allowed under the unlimited plan.
T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS may have room on their networks, giving them some leeway, at least for now, in offering unlimited data.

...
 
"The bottom line is they have capacity available to attract quite an influx of subscribers without pulling down the network," said Steven Crowley, an independent network engineering consultant.
T-Mobile USA is a unit of German phone company Deutsche Telekom AG and has 33.2 million subscribers. MetroPCS has 9.3 million.
___
August 25, 2012 03:31 AM EDT

AND... then there is this GEM...

T-Mobile losing more lucrative subscribers

12:46 pm August 9, 2012, by Christopher Seward

T-Mobile continues to struggle to keep valuable customers, losing more than a half-million of its long-term subscribers in the three months ending in June, the company reported Thursday.

(Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com)

Competition from Verizon, AT&T and Sprint for long-term subscribers and rivalry from smaller competitors for prepaid mobile customers continue to put T-Mobile in a bind when it comes to growing its most lucrative customer base – those signing up for long-term contracts, who also tend to have the highest monthly bills.

T-Mobile, the country’s No. 4 cellphone company, said it lost 557,000 contract customers during the period but the loss was offset by gains in prepaid and wholesale customers, leaving it with a net loss of 205,000 customers overall. In the same period a year ago, T-Mobile lost 50,000 customers.

While T-Mobile’s top three competitors increased revenue from monthly fees for contract service, T-Mobile saw a 9 percent drop from the same period a year ago.

T-Mobile, however, reported its customer turnover rate fell during the quarter. The company managed to report a nearly flat second-quarter profit of $207 million, compared with $212 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue fell 3 percent to $4.9 billion.

U.S. regulators last year blocked AT&T’s buyout of T-Mobile, which is a subsidiary of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG.

Cell Tower Blog Trolls... Take Heed! (Now THIS is Funny!)

 

After the success of the "No" vote on July 31 to the cell tower referendum question, we thought the next steps in this process would be fairly simple: 

 

1.  Advocate for the best quality school board members who will not put other parents or taxpayers through the same nightmare we have endured for the past year. 

 

2.  Work with an alliance of other protest groups in the U.S. to support national legislation to protect our children and everyone else from the unknown dangers associated with RF radiation.

 

3.  Keep a close eye on the school cell tower sites and be ready to jump into action if any construction begins, esp. without a valid zoning or building permit.

 

What we did NOT expect was an opportunity to engage in more meaningless debate with a real life cell tower blog troll.  But, that's exactly what it felt like to read this article on the DeKalb School Watch Blog.

You will notice that anytime there is someone who is trying to warn others about the dangers of RF radiation, it is usually a regular person, not someone who works in the industry.  They will usually give you their real name and a way to contact them directly.  But, who exactly is it that is speaking up in favor of the cell towers? 

We will look into this question in more detail once we have completed our review of the recent cell tower referendum question that landed on our last election ballot.  But, we can tell you from personal observation that those who come out in favor of a cell tower are usually the people who work for the industry or someone who can expect to profit as a result of the tower going up.

This recent walk down blogger memory lane gave us a big laugh as we recalled one of the best "rants" we have ever, ever, EVER read on the subject of cell towers. 
It is written by someone called "Dr. DeKalb" and was posted on the Tucker Patch in July 2011 in response to a early cell tower article. 
Just to bring you up to speed, these comments started after at least 100 or more had already been posted.  After a long, drawn out debate between multiple people across the country, it seems Dr. DeKalb had simply had enough.

He not only called out "Neil" for his blog troll comments, but also tried to make sense of all the false logic that was being presented. 


********************************************************************************

 

From The Tucker Patch....

 

6:13 pm on Saturday, July 2, 2011

 

7:08 pm on Saturday, July 2, 2011
Dr. DeKalb comments...

 

"And, just to make sure we are all following your logic, Neil... let me summarize it for you...

1. Towers emit radiation.
2. Fear of tower radiation is ridiculous and should not be tolerated.
3. Science should tell us that our phones (the ones that the adults carry around near the local school when they should be at work) are far worse for us unless we build more towers.
4. We should not be afraid of towers at schools.
5. Instead we should buy more phones and a bigger cell plan so that our children who currently do not carry phones, but will soon have a tower, will finally have the very thing (the phone) that you just said was the more dangerous of the two.
6. Now, once we have the right amount of phones and towers, if that state of balance will ever be something we can obtain, then we will rejoice because we will finally be permitted to fear them both equally.
7. And, most importantly, there are other threats that we should fear more and we should teach our children how to respond in these non-specific emergencies in a way that is contrary to the emergency procedures they practice at school.
8. And, while the cell tower radiation is the least thing to fear, we should be reassured that if it falls over or catches on fire that our children will be able to make a call for help.

Ooops, that's right, they probably will not be able to make a call if the tower has fallen over, will they??"


Remember, if you are involved in a fight to keep a cell tower away from your home or school, do not let these "blog trolls" get you too angry or take those whom might be reading your blog too far away from the subject at hand.

 In a rational debate between mature adults who want what is best for the educational system, and the children in their community, each side would be willing to listen to the other and work toward a consensus. 

If you suspect a blog comment is from someone paid by the industry, the best thing to do is just try to call them out on their role and refuse to engage them in a tit for tat debate unless they will give you their real name and state their professional connection to the issue.  If the industry bias is out in the open, then those who read the comments can take that aspect of the conversation into consideration.

When dealing with a blog troll, you will never, ever win.  Except this once...  We definitely think Dr. DeKalb got some "closure" in his hilarious post and we are thankful to him for his comments and for giving us a much needed laugh!

Center for Safer Wireless Recognizes Get the Cell Out - Atlanta's Victory

The results of the DeKalb County election are in for July 2012 and the "nonbinding referendum" question is garnering recognition from one of the leading organizations in the nation that advocates for smarter use of wireless technology - The Center for Safer Wireless.

The Center for Safer Wireless is most well-known for hosting and organizing the "Wireless Safety Summit" in Washington, D.C. in October 2011. 

Here's what they said about us:
*********************************************************************************
Victory for Get the Cell Out in Atlanta

• On Tuesday, July 21, exactly 71,690 voters in Dekalb County, Georgia voted against cell towers on school grounds. The Get the Cell Out - Atlanta Chapter worked hard to raise awareness of the many problems associated with cell towers on school property. More than 60% of voters voted no to the question "Should the local or independent school system of DeKalb County or a charter school in DeKalb County place or operate a telecommunications tower on any elementary, middle or high school property?"
• Consider working to get a similar question on voter ballots in your area.

  *********************************************************************************

Thank you to Christine Hoch, the leader of this powerful non-profit, for lending your help and support throughout our campaign to save our schools from certain demise and for keeping Atlanta in mind as you advocate for safer wireless across the U.S.!

Second Response from DeKalb County Registration & Elections Office

****  In Response to our Inquiry about the Title of the Cell Tower Ballot Question as it appears in all the Summary documents on the final elections website:  www.dekalbvotes.com.  ******

From: Daniels, Maxine W
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 7:58 AM
To: GTCO-ATL
Cc: Weeks, Mary Frances ; Drenner, Karla  ;  Ty Tagimmi
Subject: RE: Unofficial Summary of July 31 vote - PLEASE MAKE THIS UPDATE TO YOUR SUMMARY

Good morning (GTCO-ATL)

I cannot address the T-SPLOST issue because it was done by the Secretary of State’s office.  The Brookhaven incorporation bill did not specify the title so it was at the discretion of the superintendent (our Board). In the case of this referendum, the bill stipulates a heading and we are obligated to use that wording.  I do understand your concern but the place to address this was in the approved bill.  Also, as I mentioned before, we are unable to change anything on the ballot or the reports at this time. 

Respectfully,

H. Maxine Daniels
Director
DeKalb County Registration & Elections
Office:  404-298-4020  Fax: 404-298-4038
www.dekalbvotes.com

**********************************

From: GTCO-ATL
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 8:32 AM
To: Daniels, Maxine W
Cc: Weeks, Mary Frances ; Drenner, Karla  ;  Ty Tagimmi
Subject: Re: Unofficial Summary of July 31 vote - PLEASE MAKE THIS UPDATE TO YOUR SUMMARY

Good morning Ms. Daniels,

I understand and appreciate your explanation.

Thank you for your service to DeKalb County.

Kind regards,

GTCO-ATL

Response from DeKalb County Registration & Elections

GTCO-ATL received this email in response to our request that the voting summary data from the July 2012 election be labeled as "Telecommunications Tower Referendum" or "Cell Tower Question" similar to the way the other issues on the ballot were labeled in the summary documents. 

Instead of anything that identifies the subject matter, the cell tower summary section is simply labled "Non-binding Advisory Referendum." 

We assume this is the main reason why most of the major media outlets completely overlooked the results, which were 62% of voters saying "No" to cell towers on our school grounds.

Here is the response:

8/2/2012

Good morning,

The cell tower question was placed on the ballot as the result of the passage of House Bill 1299.  That bill specified the title to be used on the  ballot as “Nonbinding Advisory Referendum”.  Since our election summary is limited as to the number of characters that may be used, the title was shortened to fit the allocated space.  When the title is specified in the approved bill, we are obligated to use the language provided.   Further, we are prohibited from making any changes such as this in our database that tabulates the election and provides the summary reports after the ballots are generated which was done in early June.  While I appreciate your concerns, I am unable to accommodate your request.

Respectfully,

H. Maxine Daniels
Director
DeKalb County Registration and Elections
Office:  404-298-4020  Fax: 404-298-4038
www.dekalbvotes.com

"True Yes" voters may be fewer than 10%





Subtract industry workers and the uniformed.  Subtract those who do not own a home or have a child in the system.  Subtract those who do not live near a school themselves.  GTCO-ATL estimates only about 10% of the yes vote is a "true yes."  Whereas every No vote is a strong message to T-mobile to BACK OUT of the contract they have with our schools.

So, if you are like us at GTCO-ATL, you might be wondering ... who said YES?  We will be getting more into this subject later as the detailed results are made available, but here are just a few thoughts we have right now about the "true yes" voters out there... and there aren't many of them!

When you subtract the percentage of people who work for the telecomm industry, profit from corruption in the school system, or have close friends or family tied to either of these industries, the total Yes vote would likely be cut in half to only 20%. 

When you subtract the number of people who are completey unaware and uninformed on this subject, the true "yes" vote would be reduced ever further. GTCO-ATL estimates that a 10% "true yes" is the likely percentage of those in our county who would actually be okay with a cell tower at a school. 

And, of those "true yes" votes, a large portion would likely be people who do not own their own home, have children in the school system, or live near a school themselves. 

It's clear from the vote on July 31, practically NO ONE truly would welcome a cell tower near their home, their school and would not want to place that burden on anyone else in the county, either.  Great job, DeKalb County! 

T-mobile has said they will not put up towers in areas where they are not wanted.  So, if they try to come to your neighborhood next, you are now armed with valid information to fight against them.  So, when will T-mobile exercise its "out clause" and leave our schools and our residential areas alone?  The ball is in their court!