BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cellular phone towers are cropping up everywhere, and when they will stop, nobody knows.
![[graphic]](celltowers.jpg)
How many have been built and how many will be needed are questions the industry refuses to answer. Or cannot answer.
"There may not be any such thing as "enough towers,' " said Rajan Kamath, an associate professor of management at the University of Cincinnati who specializes in telecommunication strategy. "Right now, each company is building the towers it needs to provide a competitive service. We may have to wait for the industry to reach a natural economic level that the area can support before we see an end to building towers."
The 1996 Federal Telecommunication Act gives wireless communications companies the authority to build towers without local government interference. Driven by increasing demand for cellular phones, pagers and other technology, they are flooding areas with 180-foot monopoles and attaching antennas to tall buildings and utility towers.
The monopole is the main structure that prompts complaints from municipalities and residents, who watch helplessly as they are built near residential property lines.
Bruce Siereveld lives 6 feet from a 180-foot monopole built near his back yard in the Pleasant Ridge business district.
"The thing is ugly," Mr. Siereveld said. He thinks it will probably lower his property value, but he was helpless to do anything about it.
Anderson Township is in a court battle with GTE Wireless, AirTouch and the Ohio Department of Transportation, trying to prevent two towers from being built along Interstate 275 in areas zoned residential. One tower, at Five Mile Road, is already up.
A three-judge panel in the 10th District Court of Appeals denied the township's request for an injunction. The township cannot stop the construction, but it may be able to regulate where the towers go. A survey of agencies in the eight-county area in Greater Cincinnati -- described by the industry as a major trading plum for wireless communication -- shows that 405 permits for towers have been issued in the last four years.
The city of Cincinnati has been a prime location, issuing 53 permits.
"There should be an agency that will regulate how many can be built, but I don't know of any," said David Gecks of the city's building and inspection department, which issues permits.
The Federal Communication Commission is concerned about towers only when they are more than 200 feet tall. Monopoles are usually just under that limit.
Cincinnati has had its bouts with companies building monopoles. After several disputes in which the city was helpless to prevent construction, it passed an ordinance last year to regulate tower construction.
The ordinance stipulated that a tower cannot be built closer to a residential structure than 110 percent of its height, meaning a 180-foot tower would have to be 198 feet from the nearest residence.
While the monopoles are the most visible and draw the most complaints, engineers say they are soundly constructed, and they allow for co-location, or site sharing, among companies.
They are anchored 40 feet underground in a 10-foot-diameter foundation filled with concrete. As many as three companies can use one monopole.
"But this is where competition dictates what the industry will do," Mr. Kamath said. "If one company moves into an area, others want to come in also. The first company may not want to allow co-location because of the different packages offered by its competitors." He argues that the different packages offered may prevent co-location in the interest of competition. One company offers a phone for as little as 1 cent. Another may charge $149. Some charge 10 cents a minute; others, as much as 50 cents a minute.
"Obviously, the more services offered, the better it is for the customers," Mr. Kamath said.
More services could also mean more towers, he said. But that trend could lead to a saturation point, economically.
"I think it will get to the point where the marginal extra company will not jump in the mix, because as the rates go down, it will not be feasible to shell out the large expenses required to build towers when the market is not there to make it back," he said.
Kathleen Riehle, director of marketing communication for Cincinnati Bell Wireless, said most telecommunication companies go full-blast to get started, but level off.
"Within two years, AT&T built about 170 towers in the Tristate area we covered," Mrs. Riehle said. "I think the company is just about finished building towers in this area."
