AT&T’s engineers once said that the amount of equipment they plan on installing on a tower is like placing a Honda Civic on the tower. How could this be? Let’s look at the equipment changes from AT&T on one of our client’s towers between the years of 2007 and 2015.
Original Lease 2007 – Total equipment = 6 antennas, 6 transmission lines. Total antenna weight 210 pounds, not including tower mounts
2011 – Equipment upgrade = 12 antennas, 9 amplifiers
2012 – Tower modification = redundant bracing
2013 – Equipment upgrade = 12 antennas, more coaxial lines
2014 – LTE 2C – equipment upgrade = 12 antennas, fiber cables, RRHs
2014 – Tower modification = new guy wires and guy pull offs
2015 – LTE 3C & 4C – Total equipment = 12 antennas, 24 coaxial cables, 4 DC cables, 2 fiber cables, 12 RRHs. 6 amplifiers, 4 diplexers, 2 OVP cylinders. Total antenna weight: 720 pounds; total RRH weight: 720 pounds.
In 8 years, AT&T has gone from 210 pounds of equipment and 6 antennas to more than 1,500 pounds of equipment and 12 antennas facing in 5 different azimuth headings. After 5 upgrades, 4 structural analyses, and 2 tower modifications, the tower is still stressed ~98.5%. By no means does a Honda Civic weigh 1,500 pounds, but you get my point.
