Personal free cell phone towers

[Damocles]

Unfortunately, the Secret Service explanation isn't holding up to scrutiny. Yes, the Secret Service requested and received temporary cell phone towers, but there was also a two year and very costly effort to get permanent cell phone towers in place at McCain's ranch independent of the temporary Secret Service towers that was prompted at the request of Cindy McCain.

It was prompted by the available land, they then made the determination that such towers were overly expensive and wouldn't be wise.

Cindy made land available, they thought to take advantage of it, then found that it was not commercially viable to place permanent towers in the area. It's no supermysterious alien conspiracy. It's all available in the story.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

Unfortunately, the Secret Service explanation isn't holding up to scrutiny. Yes, the Secret Service requested and received temporary cell phone towers, but there was also a two year and very costly effort to get permanent cell phone towers in place at McCain's ranch independent of the temporary Secret Service towers that was prompted at the request of Cindy McCain.

LMAO... you are struggling to find some great story here. EVERY citizen has the right to request better cell coverage. The McCains offered up land in exchange for the towers going up. Verizon researched it and determined it was STILL too costly and thus did not put up permanent towers. THEN the SS requested better coverage and the temp towers were put in place.

 

[Bonestorm]

It was prompted by the available land, they then made the determination that such towers were overly expensive and wouldn't be wise.

Cindy made land available, they thought to take advantage of it, then found that it was not commercially viable to place permanent towers in the area. It's no supermysterious alien conspiracy. It's all available in the story.

It was prompted by Cindy asking for a cell phone tower. Verizon did a lot of leg work to get the tower put up and spent a lot of money on it. Commercial viability seemingly has nothing to do with the failure to get a permanent tower. Rather, the report cites environmental concerns as blocking the permanent tower.

And isn't the commercial viability thing a bit of a joke in the first instance:

Coverage maps that a Verizon contractor submitted to the county show that the tower would fill gaps in unpopulated parts of Coconino National Forest and on about 20 parcels of land, including a handful of residences, and two small businesses open by appointment only.

I doesn't take two years to figure out that spending on a tower to serve a handful of residences and two small businesses isn't "commercially viable" unless the companies were looking not to get a monetary ROI but to curry favor with some VIPs.

 

[Damocles]

It was prompted by Cindy asking for a cell phone tower. Verizon did a lot of leg work to get the tower put up and spent a lot of money on it. Commercial viability seemingly has nothing to do with the failure to get a permanent tower. Rather, the report cites environmental concerns as blocking the permanent tower.

And isn't the commercial viability thing a bit of a joke in the first instance:



I doesn't take two years to figure out that spending on a tower to serve a handful of residences and two small businesses isn't "commercially viable" unless the companies were looking not to get a monetary ROI but to curry favor with some VIPs.

Wasting your outrage...

No towers were built, nor even temps put in the area until after the Secret Service made inquiries.

This is a nothing story about nothing happening.

 

[Bonestorm]

Wasting your outrage...

No towers were built, nor even temps put in the area until after the Secret Service made inquiries.

This is a nothing story about nothing happening.

No towers were built because of environmental regulations, not because Verizon and the McCains tried to get them in there.

This story is about John McCain and his wife using his status as ranking member on the commerce committee to reap personal benefits from their good friends at Verizon only to get snagged up by environmental concerns.

I'm not outraged at all. I expect as much from the McCains.

 

[uscitizen]

They can just fly up in their plane anytime they want to make a call.

 

[Damocles]

No towers were built because of environmental regulations, not because Verizon and the McCains tried to get them in there.

This story is about John McCain and his wife using his status as ranking member on the commerce committee to reap personal benefits from their good friends at Verizon only to get snagged up by environmental concerns.

I'm not outraged at all. I expect as much from the McCains.

Where do you get that from? Just the part about the "snag"?

Cindy offered land, they hired people to see if they could get it done, they decided against it because it wouldn't give them any return. That is what is in the story at the link. Nothing about environmental regulations that you magically pooped out of your imagination other then a mention of a "snag".

The story is about people related to somebody running for President who thought to see if they can solve a problem about cell coverage in the area by offering something of value and getting something in return, and some people who thought that they could make a big deal out of a relatively common occurrence in remote areas. People do this all the time out in the area I live. Sometimes new towers are built, sometimes they aren't. If every time somebody went on the Verizon site in my area and asked for coverage in a remote area it was some sort of news story... Well, newspapers would be thick...

You try to make it some huge conspiracy... But people who live here know it isn't.

 

[Bonestorm]

Where do you get that from?

Cindy offered land, they hired people to see if they could get it done, they decided against it. That is what is in the story at the link. Nothing about environmental regulations that you magically pooped out of your imagination.

The story is about people related to somebody running for President who thought to see if they can solve a problem about cell coverage in the area by offering something of value and getting something in return. People do this all the time out in the area I live. Sometimes new towers are built, sometimes they aren't.

You try to make it some huge conspiracy... But people who live here know it isn't.

You keep saying I'm making it a conspiracy. I'm not. It's a fairly straightforward arrangement wherein Cindy McCain, wife of the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee and Republican presidential candidate, requested that Verizon, a big contributor to McCain's campaigns and a firm regulated by the FCC and the Commerce Committee, build a tower to service their land. That's not a conspiracy.

Second, I realize that people do this all the time, I seriously question whether people are taken seriously and Verizon Wireless embarks on an expensive regulatory and permitting process to build a tower to serve a handful of residential properties and two appointment only businesses when one of the those residential properties is not the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee and Republican presidential candidate.

Third, I get the bit about environmental regulations here:

The company navigated a lengthy county regulatory process that hit a snag on environmental concerns. The request ultimately prevailed when a contractor for the company invoked the Secret Service after John McCain secured the Republican nomination.

Where do you get the idea that it wasn't commercially viable and how difficult is it to figure out that a tower to service a handful of residential properties and two appointment only businesses in a very remote corner of rural Arizona isn't a commercially viable venture?

 

[cawacko]

Second, I realize that people do this all the time,

How many of those people have the secret service request it for them?

Maybe I'm that nieve. If you are running for President you will have things done for you that most other people won't. That's the power of the position.

 

[Bonestorm]

How many of those people have the secret service request it for them?

Maybe I'm that nieve. If you are running for President you will have things done for you that most other people won't. That's the power of the position.

You're confused. I grant you that the Secret Service requesting temporary cell phone towers is perfectly legitimate and necessary.

The issue that I'm discussing is the McCain's effort to get a permanent cell phone tower to service their property long before the Secret Service was ever involved and that was pursued at considerable expense to Verizon Wireless notwithstanding the fact that the tower would service a handful of residential properties and two appointment only businesses given its extremely rural and sparsely populated location.

 

[Damocles]

You keep saying I'm making it a conspiracy. I'm not. It's a fairly straightforward arrangement wherein Cindy McCain, wife of the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee and Republican presidential candidate, requested that Verizon, a big contributor to McCain's campaigns and a firm regulated by the FCC and the Commerce Committee, build a tower to service their land. That's not a conspiracy.

Second, I realize that people do this all the time, I seriously question whether people are taken seriously and Verizon Wireless embarks on an expensive regulatory and permitting process to build a tower to serve a handful of residential properties and two appointment only businesses when one of the those residential properties is not the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee and Republican presidential candidate.

Third, I get the bit about environmental regulations here:



Where do you get the idea that it wasn't commercially viable and how difficult is it to figure out that a tower to service a handful of residential properties and two appointment only businesses in a very remote corner of rural Arizona isn't a commercially viable venture?

Where do I get the bit about commercially viable?

Well, directly from the story.

Again, a "snag" didn't stop them. That was another thing put in the story to add to the "mystery"...

The reality is they often don't get a profit from towers in my area, not for a long time. They do, however, get to show that their footprint is better and businesspeople from other areas will select their service so that people can get information out in the boondocks... It isn't phone tower in this area goes up and the 50 people that can reach it will offset the cost. It is: People in the area own 14 businesses with over 150,000 total employees between them, with service being available they maintain service on our network, if we don't put it in and AT&T does we lose "x" number of users on our network.... blah, blah...

How many of those 20 parcels of land have people who are fiscally powerful on them? Would they get their companies to transfer to their network because of availability? How much would that offset costs? Would they transfer their company's service away from the network if a competitor added service first?

But hey, you think that it is all just "simple" because you never worked for a phone company.

There are myriad other considerations. Reaching a "snag" simply meant it was now going to cost more because of impact fees, etc. They then determine that the benefit from the footprint wouldn't offset the cost overall because of added fiscal requirements from impact fees and other determinations that they would not know about until starting the process.

Making this some sort of conspiracy to commit phone service is just outrage over nothing happening.

 

[uscitizen]

I am suprised that verizon did not yet put a tower there. McCain did support the wiretapping amnesty for Verizon. It must be the environmental stuff holding up the tower construction.

 

[cawacko]

You're confused. I grant you that the Secret Service requesting temporary cell phone towers is perfectly legitimate and necessary.

The issue that I'm discussing is the McCain's effort to get a permanent cell phone tower to service their property long before the Secret Service was ever involved and that was pursued at considerable expense to Verizon Wireless notwithstanding the fact that the tower would service a handful of residential properties and two appointment only businesses given its extremely rural and sparsely populated location.

My first thought is rich people ask and get stuff done for them. I remember the story of Tom Siebel who started Siebel Systems that went on to make gazillions and how wired his house was out in the middle of nowhere Montana. He got companies to do things for him because he was freakin rich.

My second thought is McCain is running for President. If you're a possible candidate (especially a possible winning one) and you are rich you can have things done for you that wouldn't be done for most people.

I'm sure as a company it does not hurt your P.R. to do work for the possible future President so I don't know how they quantify that but I know I would make exceptions for someone of that power.

 

[Bonestorm]

Where do I get the bit about commercially viable?

Well, directly from the story.

Again, a "snag" didn't stop them. That was another thing put in the story to add to the "mystery"...

The reality is they often don't get a profit from towers in my area, not for a long time. They do, however, get to show that their footprint is better and businesspeople from other areas will select their service so that people can get information out in the boondocks... It isn't phone tower in this area goes up and the 50 people that can reach it will offset the cost. It is: People in the area own 14 businesses with over 150,000 total employees between them, with service being available they maintain service on our network, if we don't put it in and AT&T does we lose "x" number of users on our network.... blah, blah...

How many of those 20 parcels of land have people who are fiscally powerful on them? Would they get their companies to transfer to their network because of availability? How much would that offset costs? Would they transfer their company's service away from the network if a competitor added service first?

But hey, you think that it is all just "simple" because you never worked for a phone company.

There are myriad other considerations. Reaching a "snag" simply meant it was now going to cost more because of impact fees, etc. They then determine that the benefit from the footprint wouldn't offset the cost overall because of added fiscal requirements from impact fees and other determinations that they would not know about until starting the process.

Making this some sort of conspiracy to commit phone service is just outrage over nothing happening.

You sure do have a knack for unsubstantiated horseshit that miraculously conforms to the McCain campaign line.

There is nothing in the above post that is supported by anything of record except the word of a Verizon PR guy.

And again, there is no conspiracy here. Cindy McCain flexed her muscles to get Verizon to put a tower out there that makes no sense from a business perspective. They went through the detailed and involved regulatory process and ran into environmental problems because the property is on a flood plain. Verizon wanted to curry favor with the McCains.

It's pretty straightforward. At least cawacko gets what's going on here, albeit he doesn't have a problem with it. To pretend this is the ordinary course of business is crap.