Is AT&T pushing tower-climbing workers too hard as it rolls out its 3G data network in preparation for the launch of the next iPhone? Philip Elmer-Dewitt at Apple 2.0 notes a curious rise in cell-tower deaths over the past five weeks. Since April 12th, six cell-tower technicians have fallen to their deaths, and at least three of them were working on AT&T projects. During the four months before that, there were zero cell-tower fatalities.
An AT&T spokesperson denies there is any connection, telling DeWitt that the $20 billion upgrade of AT&T’s data network requires no more than a “software upgrade” at the base of each tower. Yet surely there are times when the towers need to be climbed to troubleshoot the new set-up, place testing equipment on the tower, or remove old equipment that is no longer needed.
When Apple 2.0 previously ran a story about AT&T’s rush to roll out its 3G network in 275 market by the end of June, one commenter from North Carolina named Duke asked:
At what costs? There has been such a rush to get the “3G” up and running that communication tower workers are pushed to their limit. As a safety manager and a communication worker I find it hard to justify the “Hurry up and be SAFE” mentality. One of the largest construction management companies preach the 0 accident policy but force you to get this done at next to nothing in a obserd [sic] time frame and a company who used to be raising the bar are certainly not sharing all of the info. Check http://www.wirelessestimator.com to get an updated list of 3G fatalities. I am sure that the companies in question will state they require a 100% tie off but when push comes to shove get the job done.
Apple is expected to announce its 3G iPhone in June. Hopefully, nobody else will have to die for AT&T to be ready for it.
(Photo by Jeff Kubina).
I can´t believe you draw that conclusion after such terrible incidents.
Fact: The readership of TechCrunch has risen in recent years.
Fact: So has knife crime in UK inner cities.
Is TechCrunch inspiring youths to stab people?
Phrasing it as a question instead of an answer doesn’t stop it being inane. It’s a mistake to think that you don’t need evidence to ask a question; you need less evidence than you need to state as a fact, but you still need some reason to ask that particular question instead of every other possible question, e.g. “are cell phone tower deaths causing their co-workers to work harder on the 3G network in order to bury their grief”.
So, according to the article, there were 0 deaths in the four months before April - those months being, umm, WINTER. I suspect that there quite simply wasn’t as much work being done on the towers during that time due to weather - which I’m relatively sure neither Apple nor AT&T controls. Why not practice at least the most basic fragment of journalism and at least have comparison data from the same period last year. Although, of course, every lost life is tragic, there is nothing in your article that indicates this is actually unusual for the industry (and perhaps that should be the real story).
Some observations about this piece:
1. The author must know little about cellular technologies.
2. The author must care little about defamation and potential libel implications of his remarks about AT&T.
3. The author must be writing more for entertainment than with journalistic intent.
I would expect more from the writers and editors at TechCrunch.
Fact is AT&T, Apple and many other large coorporations selling in the USA do use what should be described as slavery, do employ children, do not care about workers rights, they do exploit developping nations and do not care about workers safety.
That is also how our so-called free market works. You produce your product in countries that underpay and don’t respect human rights. You use so-called contractors an other intermediaries to not have responsibillity for the workers, may they be in illegal unsafe and underpaid workig conditions.
People should look at the facts, the fre market is not fair if it is not regulated and that all workers are equally cared for and that all companies are held responsible for the work and pollution being done on their priducts, no matter the intermediaries.
Gee, thanks Charbax.
I love how you use the word “Fact” so much, but are unable to produce a shred of evidence of this child sex slavery by corporate America.
In order to use the word “Fact” you kind of need to show us some evidence, you twit.
I’m a communication tower climber and have been for over 11 years. Anyone interested in the fatality rate of this workforce should understand that often there is a chain of contractors 5 deep between AT&T and the lowest tier contractor and the second level is always a mega general contractor. If you were to drive to an AT&T site and ask one of the climbers who he’s working for “Bechtel” would be as likely an answer as “AT&T”. To draw a straight line between AT&T and the dead tower climbers is to ignore every entity in between, each pushing as hard. It is also to ignore the fact that there were other fatalities on non-AT&T projects.
The information available on theses fatalities so far this year, though, indicate the tower climbers were not using the fall arrest safety equipment they were supplied and they were not following the industry wide “100% tie off” rule. Who can be blamed for that? Certainly not AT&T as they, in fact, have very little contact with the tower climbers.
I don’t know your motivation for writing about these deaths. The total lack of meaningful research as well as the provocative tone suggests to me that you are much more interested in engaging in sensationalist sound bite media than the subject you wrote about here.
By the way there actually have been 7 tower climber fatalities this year, not 6. The most recent death occurred May 22, 2008 in Dade County, Florida and the climber was not working on an AT&T project.
dam thts weird probably they wernt straped down im a tower tech for high maintance comunication
back in about 1998 quest or qwest were getting ready to kick off their network . they told the company that I was working for they had to have about 15 tower done in 30 days. we only had about 10 workers. I’ve never worked so hard in my life. it wasn’t about getting enough hours to get enough money to pay rent or buy a truck. it was about getting the job done so I can get some sleep. we slept in our trucks enough to give us enough energy to keep working. we pretty much worked as much our body could do and then slept day or night. our company said “do what you can do, don’t kill your self” quest said “get it done” they had done there public anouncement of there network startup a month ago. my point being I guess is that these networks say that such and such will happen at this date and it will happen at a cost to the workers. there are only so many tower companys out there and when a network wants something done all these tower companys are doing these things for these networks and when the network can’t get their deadlines straight that’s when contractors die