Northway Cell Tower Agreement

[Buckethead]

Principles have been laid for northway cell towers.

Thought some folks might be interested...

http://www.pressrepublican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070419/NEWS/704190302/1001&ts=ts3

[eobrieniv]

linky no workie

[AdRegion]

They "updated" their website and permalinks crashed.

Here's the new link: Northway Cell-phone Agreement Reached

And my roundup: Adirondack Northway Cellphones

[WalksWithBlackflies]

<sigh>

Oh the things we will barter for petty convenience.

Nice article AdRegion.

[redhawk]

Kinda makes ya wonder how people like Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith. Jeremiah Johnson and Kit Carson ever managed to survive doesn't it?

To even think that Lewis & Clark managed in all those remote areas without cell phone coverage!!

[St.Regis]

To even think that Lewis & Clark managed in all those remote areas without cell phone coverage!!

Too bad they didn't have a cell phone...they could have ordered the pizza and 2 dozen wing special instead of eating their dogs .

[redhawk]

Too bad they didn't have a cell phone...they could have ordered the pizza and 2 dozen wing special instead of eating their dogs .

They never would have completed the trip. tey would have lost too much time trying to get a signal.

[Starshadow]

I do know that some find it necessary to use a cell phone in the woods and in emergencies I would concur. It makes me chuckle looking back to a time when the phone company decided where your phone would be, wouldn`t even let you have a long cord, "no, you will talk HERE and nowhere else!" They would send out tracker trucks if they suspected you installed another line for a second phone which you needed to disable the bell so they couldn`t detect two phones ringing when they called.You couldn`t take a picture with it or type messages! Don`t know how we made it.

---------------------------------------------

For people who like peace and quiet; a phoneless cord.

unknown

[Hugh]

Blackflies ,Hawk etal,Cmon guys ,this isnt a question of astetics its about public safety on a very desolate and dangerous(in the winter)stretch of highway,what wasnt very well publicized was the fact that a Canadian trucker died of a heart attack not 2 weeks after that poor man froze to death cause no help came in time to save him, about 4yrs ago 2 folks died of dehydration after thier car went over an embankment and wasnt visable from the road and this in a heavier populated area of the Northway,what they all had in common was that they all had cell phones that were rendered useless because of lack of towers,now you can ramble on all you want about Jim Bridger and Lewis and Clark and all the rest all of whom I have the deepest respect for by the way but this whether you like it or not(I Dont) is the 21st century and if towers on the Northway save even one life well you folks are going to have to get used to them.For the record I dont own a cell phone and doubt that I ever will I hate them but sometimes they are necessary. Hugh

[redhawk]

Blackflies ,Hawk etal,Cmon guys ,this isnt a question of astetics its about public safety on a very desolate and dangerous(in the winter)stretch of highway,what wasnt very well publicized was the fact that a Canadian trucker died of a heart attack not 2 weeks after that poor man froze to death cause no help came in time to save him, about 4yrs ago 2 folks died of dehydration after thier car went over an embankment and wasnt visable from the road and this in a heavier populated area of the Northway,what they all had in common was that they all had cell phones that were rendered useless because of lack of towers,now you can ramble on all you want about Jim Bridger and Lewis and Clark and all the rest all of whom I have the deepest respect for by the way but this whether you like it or not(I Dont) is the 21st century and if towers on the Northway save even one life well you folks are going to have to get used to them.For the record I dont own a cell phone and doubt that I ever will I hate them but sometimes they are necessary. Hugh

So Hugh, what about the tens of thousands of miles of Interstates in the Plains and southwestern states and even here in New York and many other states that have no cellular service? I mean in many of them, there is nothing around for miles, Nada. Not even the emregency phones that you have along the Northway which are finally working again. Do we make sure that all of it is covered? Do we force the phone carriers to comply? And if so, then don't we have to be sure that ALL cellphones, including tracphone and many of that ilk also have the service? And who is going to pay the xtra to put that service in places where there is no population to make it profitable or at least break even for the phone companies? Will it be fair that people in populated areas will have to pay even more for service to subsidize the towers in the remote places? Or should the government subsidize it at taxpayers expense?

here's the thing, as cruel and as callous as it sounds. PEOPLE DIE, they die from disease, from accidents of all kinds, as well as natural causes. I'm all for when you have a situation that effects a huge amount of people, like toxins and carcinogens, taking steps to change the situation. What about hunger and freezing to death, do you have any idea how many people die from that each year, IN THIS COUNTRY? Thousands more then in all the auto accidents anywhere. Should we do something about that? If not, why not? Why not up in arms about that? How many people die each year because they can't afford medicine or medical procedures? What about that? That occurs a lot more then once or twice a year which is about the ghigh point for accidents on the Northway where cell coverage is a contributor.

We can't save everybody all of the time. I know that's hard for humans to accept in this day and age, but stuff happens, and it's tragic, but if we're going to rally to the cry, then lets invest our efforts and out money into the actions that willsave the most people.

And incidently, both deaths that occurred on the Northway were avoidable. The weather was terrible, it was extremely cold and slippery, and in fact in the case of one of the accidents, local and state police had issued warnings to stay off the roads unless it was an extreme emergency. Neither driver was driving because there was an emergency.

So, saving lives starts with people making the right decisions. Neither party should have been driving on the Northway that night, both parties chose too. Had they not, then they would not have died. Lack of cell service was not the cause of their deaths, poor choice on their part was.
Why should other people have to pay for that?

Save the cheerleader, save the world!! oops, wrong analogy.

[Buckethead]

I'm a little surprised this didn't get noticed....I posted it a few weeks ago. Thanks for the link update BTW!

I agree with Hough on this one, natural selection aside! The price on wilderness is low considering that peoples lives are on the line and there is a big HIGHWAY there I would have some reservations about putting a cell tower in the middle of a pristine wilderness area, so a few people could make calls, but please remember this is a highway.

Some people don't have the luxury of just deciding not to drive for the winter months because there might be an accident... Neither of those couples were local, and there is a safe assumption that they did not know about the local state of emergency.

[redhawk]

I'm a little surprised this didn't get noticed....I posted it a few weeks ago. Thanks for the link update BTW!

I agree with Hough on this one, natural selection aside! The price on wilderness is low considering that peoples lives are on the line and there is a big HIGHWAY there I would have some reservations about putting a cell tower in the middle of a pristine wilderness area, so a few people could make calls, but please remember this is a highway.

And tell me what the difference is between this highway and the thousands of other miles of highways that don't have cell coverage and that carry more traffic then the Northway?

Did I miss something, was there an enormous amount of deaths due to lack of communications before cellular phones? Where fatalities higher in the 50's and 60's because people did not have cell phones?

There could have been cellular coverage on the Northway before all this happened. The APA had hammered out a plan several years ago. Very similar to the one being touted now. However, it was not implemented because the cell carriers did not want to have to install the towers because they would not have generated the profit that taller and less towers would. there was a simple solution if the state and local legislatures weren't in the pocket of the corporations. they could have required that if there was going to be coverage in a town, then the coverage had to include every area of the town. that's what they did with cable in it's infancy. In order to get the franchise for a city or town, the company had to guarantee that every citizen would be covered, even if it meant stringing cable 6 miles out a road to serve one customer.

Of course that was in a time when politicians were principled and most companies were ethical. Nothing like today.

Some people don't have the luxury of just deciding not to drive for the winter months because there might be an accident... Neither of those couples were local, and there is a safe assumption that they did not know about the local state of emergency.

if they didn't, they were blind and deaf. it was on every radio station and tv station in the Eastern part of the state. in addition to that, anyone with common sense had only to be outside for a short time in the snow and the cold and the ice in order to know it was dangerous. if incapable or reasoning that, then they certainly did not have the mental capacity to be operating a motor vehicle.

Somewhere a line has to be drawn that makes people accountable for their own actions. Again, the reasons for the deaths is that these people were driving under conditions they shouldn't have. To expect that they had the intelligence to realise that on their own is not unreasonable. Cell coverage had nothing to do with it.

What sticks in my craw is that people blamed the APA and the "Tree Huggers". When in fact there was no coverage because of the greed of the cellular carriers, putting profit above safety. 2nd. The politicians, Little and Gillibrand used a tragedy to promote themselves politically.

And what about the part about saving the people who are starving and freezing to death? What do you want to do about them, there are thousands more then those killed in auto accidents every year? Don't we also have an obligation to save those thousands of lives if we are expected to ensure that one or two lives a year are saved on the Northway each year? You can't justify saving a couple of lives and not doing anything about the thousands of lives.

Are we guaranteeing that every one with a cell phone will have coverage when these towers are built?

[Asael]

Progress -- building wireless towers on a rural stretch of highway to protect motorist who can afford the luxury of such a service.

It's amazing that our government can stand up and support damaging forest because a few lives have been lost along a rural stretch of highway. Then, when it comes time to kick Detroit in the pants and improve fuel efficiency there is a collective sigh of disgust and the condescending explanation about market pressures and the capitalist system. What of universal health care, to protect ALL people?

It saddens me -- particularly as a younger man -- that humanity is so willing to push the envelope on extinction, so long as the drive is comfortable and we're all in the living room together to watch. Whenever we're faced with a challenge, we choose today over tomorrow.

That's all I care to say.

[redhawk]

Progress -- building wireless towers on a rural stretch of highway to protect motorist who can afford the luxury of such a service.

It's amazing that our government can stand up and support damaging forest because a few lives have been lost along a rural stretch of highway. Then, when it comes time to kick Detroit in the pants and improve fuel efficiency there is a collective sigh of disgust and the condescending explanation about market pressures and the capitalist system. What of universal health care, to protect ALL people?

It saddens me -- particularly as a younger man -- that humanity is so willing to push the envelope on extinction, so long as the drive is comfortable and we're all in the living room together to watch. Whenever we're faced with a challenge, we choose today over tomorrow.

That's all I care to say.

You said plenty.

[Hugh]

hawk.So Hugh, what about the tens of thousands of miles of Interstates in the Plains and southwestern states and even here in New York and many other states that have no cellular service? I mean in many of them, there is nothing around for miles, what about it I thought the thread was about cell towers on the Northway,but the folks travelling those highways have my sympathyAnd who is going to pay the xtra to put that service in ,i believe that is being worked out with suprisingly the phone company bearing the brunt of costs the thing, as cruel and as callous as it sounds. PEOPLE DIE, they die from disease, from accidents of all kinds, as well as natural causes. I'm all for when you have a situation that effects a huge amount of people, like toxins and carcinogens, taking steps to change the situation. What about hunger and freezing to death, do you have any idea how many people die from that each year, IN THIS COUNTRY? Thousands more then in all the auto accidents anywhere. Should we do something about that? If not, why not? Why not up in arms about that? How many people die each year because they can't afford medicine or medical procedures? What about that? That occurs a lot more then once or twice a year which is about the ghigh point for accidents on the Northway where cell coverage is a contributor,again i thought this was a thread about about cell towers on the Northway........And incidently, both deaths that occurred on the Northway were avoidable. The weather was terrible, it was extremely cold and slippery, and in fact in the case of one of the accidents, local and state police had issued warnings to stay off the roads unless it was an extreme emergency. Neither driver was driving because there was an emergency.... Hawk reread my post I cited 2 accidents and an incident in which a total of 4 people died1st accident the guy who froze to death could that have been avoided if there was cell towers? yes 1st incident the trucker could that death have been avoided ?possibly,2nd accident the 2 people who died of dehydration when there car went over the bank,that accident happened in July no bad conditions other than extreme heat they werent found for 3 days died after 2 could those deaths have been avoided? you betcha,phones on the Northway well speaking from experience there the biggest joke perpetrated on the citizens of this state, most of the time they dont work and when they do no one answers them so even if these people could have crawled to a phone if they even knew phones existed on the side of the road chances are theyed die with a phone in there hand........We can't save everybody all of the time.Very true ,wish it wasnt But that doesnt mean we should do nothing when obviously something can and should be done. ,,,,,,,,,Lack of cell service was not the cause of their deaths I agree lack of cell phone towers were a major contributing factor. Let me ask you folks that are against towers along the Northway a question that I need no answer to,hypothetical as it may be put yourself in these poor folks place ,imagine your car went off the road 16 hours ago ,your life force is rapidly leaving and in those final moments as your facing an icy death are you going to be saying to yourself thank God I didnt see a cell phone tower on the Northway or are you going to say what the hell is wrong with these people that think an unobstructed view is worth more than a person thats in trouble ,life ? Hugh