Now this is how you get good cell phone service.
A common scene in the Land of the Rising Sun. These antennas are all over the place:
Click to expand
If San Francisco is the “World Capital of Innovation,” then every city in Japan is also The World Capital of Innovation.
As seen on Masonic:
Click to expand
My favorite touch is the aluminum foil on the exhaust tips.
That’s window cleaning equipment on the left, but what are those huge antennas on the right?
Click to expand
Courage.
Don’t be a hater, don’t be like this guy:
Instead, you ought to do something about poor cell phone coverage in San Francisco.
Like what about you Upper Haight, Cole Valley, Panhandle, NoPA people? Why don’t you come on over to tonight’s big meeting regarding cell phone service.
Check it:
“October 19, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Haight Ashbury Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street”
All right, see you there!
“Dear Neighbor,
We want to have a conversation with you about improving wireless coverage in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.
AT&T is working hard to improve wireless coverage in San Francisco. We would like to invite you to attend a community workshop to discuss our plans to upgrade service in the Haight-Ashbury. These upgrades will provide improved coverage and better wireless service.
To learn more: attend a community workshop at 6:30pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at the Park Branch Library, at 1833 Page Street.
This community workshop is an opportunity for you and your neighbors to discuss wireless infrastructure with us in an informal setting. We will be ready to talk about our broad plans for the city and specific plans for your neighborhood.
We appreciate your time and the opportunity for us to have a dialogue about San Francisco’s wireless infrastructure needs. For questions or additional information please contact 415-646-0972 or visitwww.att.com/
I’ve never used the Verizon – I’m not sure what makes it so great, you know, the way people say it’s so great.
Or some people, anyway:
No matter. We all win when more cell towers go up, right? Hurray!
As here, with the news of a new cellie in the southern part of Marin County.
Of course it’s somewhat absurd to consider each installation a victory over the NIMBYs, but that’s what it’s come to. (When you’re participating in trench warfare, even moving the battle line forward 100 yards is cause for celebration.)
Here it is, a full-fledged press release for just one (1) tower going up.
Enjoy:
“New Cell Site Helps Sausalito, California, Residents and Visitors Make More Calls, Download More Apps and Stay Connected
WALNUT CREEK, Calif., July 28, 2011 – Calling, downloading apps and surfing the web on the Verizon Wireless 3G network is now easier and faster for residents and travelers in the San Francisco Bay Area thanks to a new cell site, Sausalito, California. The site expands 3G wireless coverage and capacity along Highway 101, Highway 1 and Tennessee Valley Road.
Verizon Wireless has invested more than $5.7 billion in its California network since being founded in 2000. Nationally, the company has invested more than $65 billion over that same period to increase the coverage and capacity of its network, and to add new services.
In Northern California, the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network covers more than five million people. In the San Francisco Bay Area, 4G LTE coverage extends south to San Jose and east to Oakland. In addition, Verizon’s 4G LTE footprint recently expanded in the Bay Area to include parts of Marin and Solano Counties, as well as Fresno and Sacramento. For more information, please visit: www.verizonwireless.com/4G.
Verizon Wireless on Twitter
To stay up-to-date on Verizon Wireless news in Northern California, Northern Nevada and Hawai’i, follow @VZWheidi on Twitter at http://twitter.com/VZWheidi.
For the latest network-related news, information and upgrades follow @VZWNetwork on Twitter at http://twitter.com/VZWNetwork.
About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s fastest, most advanced 4G network and largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves 106.3 million total wireless connections, including 89.7 million retail customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 83,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/
I used to laugh at AT&T…
…but no longer.
People, you got to get out there and let AT&T put up towers and otherwise improve service. My sweet T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 4G isn’t going to work so hot post-merger unless you get out there and support a cell tower or something.
You live next to 3165 Steiner Street or someplace in Cow Hollow or the Marina? Well, then start fighting those NIMBYs post-haste.
Thusly (but please remember to double-check starting times if you’re actually going to go down to City Hall):
“AT&T is working hard to improve wireless coverage in San Francisco and your support will help. AT&T proposes a new cell site at 3165 Steiner Street on top of the city-owned Lombard Street Garage. In addition to improving wireless coverage for the residents of Marina and Cow Hollow, this upgrade will provide improved wireless coverage for commuters and residents who travel along the busy Lombard Street corridor, which is the gateway to the Golden Gate Bridge and US 101N.
You can show your support for better coverage in this area of San Francisco by emailing the Planning Commissioners and letting them know you supportAT&T’s efforts to improve service across San Francisco and specifically at the Lombard Garage location:
OR
Attend the Planning Commission hearing at 2pm, on July 28, 2011 at San Francisco City Hall, Room 400.
Please feel free to share this information with your friends, neighbors and family members. AT&T wants all of our customers to enjoy the convenience, safety and security of quality wireless service now, and for many years to come. Your support will make a big difference.
For additional information go to www.att.com/bettersanfrancisco
“There are a number of opportunities for you to learn more about our efforts to upgrade San Francisco’s wireless network, or speak up to support our work to bring you a better wireless experience. These events are usually community meetings, planning commission hearings, or meetings of the Board of Supervisors.
Please feel free to invite your friends, neighbors and family members. Your attendance at these meetings will make a big difference.
| Date | Location | Project # |
|---|---|---|
| July 28, 2011 | Visitacion, 199 Leland Avenue |
CN5257 |
| August 4, 2011 | POA Credit Union, 501 6th Street |
CN5521 |
| September 8, 2011 | Project Open Hand, 726 Polk Street |
CN5543 |
| September 15, 2011 | Condor Club, 301½ Columbus |
CN5578 |
| September 15, 2011 | Chinese Hospital, 1099 Powell Street |
CN5726 |
| September 15, 2011 | Pottery Barn, 400 Castro Street |
CN5559 |
| September 15, 2011 | Monaco, 201 9th Street |
CN5520 |
| September 15, 2011 | Mission Parking Garage W, 833 Mission |
CN5895 |
| September 22, 2011 | Church of the Fellowship, 1515 Broadway |
CC2348 |
| September 22, 2011 | 539 Bryant Street | CC5238 |
Don’t see your neighborhood on this list? Contact us if you’d like to schedule a Community Meeting in your area.
| Date | Meeting Location | Proposed Site |
|---|---|---|
| July 27 | Tenderloin Recreation Center, 570 Ellis Street |
RJ’s Sports Bar, 709 Geary Street #CN5546 |
| July 28 | County Fair Bulding-Garden Room, 1199 9th Avenue |
Woodside International School, 1555 Irving Street #CN5263 |
| August 3 | Mission YMCA, 4080 Mission Street |
3999 Mission Street #CN5249 |
| August 10 | Grace Cathedral Chapter Room, 1100 California Street |
Thai Thai Noodle, 1400 California Street #CN5545 |
Isn’t it beautiful?
You’ve got the box filled with whatnot mounted on the right side of an exisiting wooden phone pole, the all-important cylindrical antenna up high on the left , and down below you’ve got a soothing sign from Next G complete with a phone number for a real live person, basically a counselor who will talk you down from your anti-technology panic attack.
Hurray!
Click to expand
(Personally, I think that anybody what wants to stop a cell phone antenna from being put wherever an engineer wants to put it should be required to complete an environmental impact report first, you know, so we can calculate the effect of a lack of utility service on the Commonweal.)
Enjoy.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth? Is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
Now the first time I posted about these cell phone box / antenna things mounted on our telephone poles in the Western Addition / Western NoPA, people from Bernal Heights and the Dogpatch wrote in to say, “Like, where’s our box, man?” ’Cause, you know, they wanted their mobiles to work more better.
Since then, we’ve gotten more phone stuff above our heads transmitting and receiving,* but I don’t know if people are happier now.
Anyway, leave us review the sitch from last year at Fulton and Central and then get an update from this week.
Back in the day, you’d need a big, tall, ugly (or not so ugly) monopole tower reaching up to the heavens to get your cell phone to work. But these days, cellie transmitters are mounted just above your heads, just like this one recently installed on Fulton Street in the Western Addition / NOPA area.
Click to expand:
These new-school transceivers that our corporate overlords at AT&T and T Mobile have seen fit to use rely heavily upon fiber optic cables. And That’s A Good Thing, per NextG Networks, which adores these things.
See their sign? It’s alarming and reassuring at the same time. Go ahead and call them up, they’ll answer. I don’t think they really want you to call them over there (I think it’s Delaware or someplace) but they’d prefer that you give them a ring if you’re totally freaking out or something. The last thing they want is you starting a new NIMBY group:
[Nitpick Mode=ON] NB NextG: The plural of antenna is “antennas,” not “antennae, unless we’re talking bugs, which we aren’t. [Nitpick Mode=OFF]
(I don’t know how people are supposed to read the fine print on these signs if they’re mounted so high.)
And here’s the mise-en-scene with a recent photo from the boys at Google (I’ve never seen a woman driving a Google Maps car, wonder why…) Can you see the white warning sign and then the gray PowerWave box down low? Well that box is connected to the Giant Beige Cylinder of Death jutting out over the street. See how somebody took care to make sure it didn’t get blocked too much by the building on the corner? And NIMBYs, how would you like to open your third floor bedroom window only to see a GBCOD antenna hard at work?
Say hello to my little friend. Didn’t know what this thing was at first, but, in context, it can only be an antenna. This is new part, I’ve figured out where / what the antenna is – hadn’t noticed it before…
But are we safe what with all that RF floating around? I don’t know. Probably. Do the NIMBYs know about all these boxes and antennas being mounted on existing telephone poles? I don’t know, probably not.
All right, that’s it, including the update.
If you’re fretful, see you after the jump for ever more deets.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth? Is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
*Were these bits from SF Weekly supposed to be funny? I generally get this kind of humor, but the whole SFW series about the SFBG’s cellie towers seemed a bit on the petulant side.
Like these guys.
It would take forever to make it up the stairs to the top of controversial landmark Sutro Tower, so a swaying elevator car is the preferred method.
Click to expand to get a closer look at a sunnier, more colorful San Francisco:
Take the tour.
Not that you’d really be able to tell, though. Sutro Tower Inc. has just finished a project that had some of the digital TV broadcast antennas (not “antennae” – that plural term is only used for bugs in our silly English language) gaining a higher altitude.
Not much howver, maybe a seven-percent increase, max. Does that make a big difference? No, not for most people, but at least STI is trying.
Here’s the antenna of KPIX-TV (OMG, that’s the home of Eye on Blogs – big ups, Brittney Gilbert!) a way up top, like 1700 feet above sea level. Now Channel 5 is as high as possible:
Click to expand
The Future is Now, and what’s labeled “CURRENT” is history:
From this:
To this:
Well, they were still wrapping the KPIX, KRON, KTVU antenna assembly, but you get the idea.
So it looks like we’re all set with the Great Digital TV Conversion of 2009. As long as Sutro Tower doesn’t get hit by a shooting star….
…we’ll be all right.
