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.

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.

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.

I would expect more from the writers and editors at TechCrunch.

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”.

The push for the 3G is partially responsible for the increase in fatalities. There is considerable pressure from all of the major management companies to meet AT&T’s rollout.

AT&T says it is as simple as changing software at the base of the tower. Don’t believe that spin for one moment. The work requires us to climb and work on the towers. Period.

I’m sorry, but are you actually suggesting that the 3G deadline is more dangerous than the other deadlines you had for previous upgrades?? Seriously, climbing a tower is part of the job. I still don’t understand how you put blood on AT&T’s hands.

Unless installing 3G requires some uniquely dangerous maneuver, there is absolutely no reason why the 3G upgrade should be any more risky than every other upgrade that’s ever been done to a cell tower.

Maybe if there was some statistic that AT&T is making cell tower works climb twice as many towers per day than normal (as opposed to hiring twice as many workers)…you might be able to connect to AT&T to the fatalities. But, since Erick didn’t take the time to find such a statistic, we can’t make that kind of connection.

Well…at least a legitimate journalist wouldn’t be able to make that connection.

Winter is a busy time for cell tower installations. It doesn’t stop with inclement weather. So to state that the reason there haven’t been any deaths during the winter months is not appropriate. In fact, it would make more sense that you would find a higher amount of deaths on AT&T projects when it is more dangerous to climb.

The push for the 3G is partially responsible for the increase in fatalities. There is considerable pressure from all of the major management companies to meet AT&T’s rollout.

AT&T says it is as simple as changing software at the base of the tower. Don’t believe that spin for one moment. The work requires us to climb and work on the towers. Period.

You are really lame…

“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?”

It seems to me that this question is just an attempt to connect the story of horrifying, tragic deaths to technological innovation, thus making these tragic stories relevant statistics for a TechCrunch blog post.

“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.”

It sounds like your question was answered here, but you don’t accept the assertion that AT&T towers require no hardware upgrade for the 3rd Generation iPhone based on… absolutely nothing. “Surely there are times when the towers need to be climbed” proves that you disagree with their assertion based on, not journalistic research, but assumptions about wireless towers.

There has also been an increase in deaths from workers on towers of other service providers (which do not support the iPhone), which suggests that maybe if there is a specific problem, that it may not be unique to AT&T.

Based on the knowledge that AT&T is doing an upgrade and your own assumptions about what this upgrade requires, you lack the information to actually accuse AT&T of the negligence and “pressure’ that resulted in the tragic deaths of three people. So instead you insinuate it by asking a rhetorical question and providing the reader with selective information. This is the same kind of tactic that political smear campaigns use.

Putting a question mark in the headline doesn’t change the fact that you’re very obviously trying to create an association where there could be none. With lines like “Hopefully, nobody else will have to die for AT&T to be ready for it.” you are implying a connection. The three deaths you say are “connected to AT&T” are only connected in the Apple article by the fact that the deaths occurred during AT&T projects, not that they were caused by AT&T.

I’m not saying AT&T’s not responsible, there’s not enough facts to go on here. Which is exactly why your article is dangerous in its speculation.

Try Freakonomics for a fun and easy introduction to cause and effect.

In all seriousness, I think the issue with your story is that you make an accusation without actually making an accusation:

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?

Your words.

I know, I know. You simply asked a question. No harm, right? But you are using a question mark in the same manner that Fox News uses when they do a hatchet job on someone. It’s unprofessional. It’s bush league. Just because you work for a blog doesn’t mean you get to say stupid sh*t like that.

Why not simply report on the story the way wirelessestimator.com does it? Simply write that X number of the fatalities happened on AT&T jobs and let the reader ask the question themselves? For instance, “At least half of this year’s fatalities happened while the tower worker was on an AT&T project. — WirelessEstimator.com”

We are smart enough to draw our own conclusions. When you ask the question for the reader, it comes off as a hatchet job. And that’s really unprofessional. TechCrunch has become the Fox News of tech news.

AT&T isnt shooing these guys up the towers and telling them to do it without safety precautions.

@3, the math is actually pretty simple: 6 deaths in 5 weeks.

Yeah, thanks Erick. I’m sure that explains everything. No need to dig deeper into the story. You just nailed it! Yep, here comes that blogging Pulitzer.

AT&T is sooo guilty here. Thank god you don’t have to adhere to those pesky journalistic codes anymore. Otherwise you would have had to show some real evidence. And we just don’t have time for that these days with your heightened posting schedule.

Hmmmm…. Hey, wait a minute! It’s Arrington is just like AT&T. He’s got you posting so many stories these days that you don’t have time to write real stories anymore! It’s like you’ve fallen off the tower of journalism. Oh crap, it’s the 6th time you’ve used a question mark in your headlines in 5 weeks! Man Arrington is sooo guilty here. It’s all his fault.