FATAL FALLS FROM TOWERS OF ALL KINDS, water, communications, electric, in the U. S. totalled 10 in number last year.

This year there were none for the first three months, then over a span of 5 weeks there were 6 deaths on cell-phone towers alone.  Five of them were during a 12-day span and half of the six were AT&T contractors.

Wireless Estimator photo

A lot of people are speculating that AT&T has been pressuring the tower workers to work faster in order to meet a June deadline for enhanced service capability for Apple’s iPhone project.

Fortune Magazine reports:

On May 21, AT&T issued a press release describing its $20 billion roll-out of a nationwide 3G network. It promised to have 275 of the markets it serves in the U.S. 3G-ready by the end of June, and to finish the remaining 75 by the end of the year.  AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple’s iPhone. A new, 3G version of that device is widely expected to be released in June.

A spokesman for AT&T Mobile confirms that Jonathan Guilford was working on a tower for an AT&T 3G network, but denies that his death or the others had anything to do with the June deadline. “That is a software upgrade,” says William Marks. “You go to each tower and use a laptop to perform the upgrade at the base station at the bottom of the tower. There is no need to climb towers.”

What he didn’t say, however, is that the workers have to climb the towers to trouble-shoot any problems.  After all, they were up there before they fell.

Read the complete Fortune Magazine article HERE.

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