FCC Chairman Ajit Pai now has tower-climbing cred. He climbed all the way up a telecommunications tower near De Beque, Colorado yesterday, wearing the appropriate safety gear. The more than 130-foot self-support tower is owned by SBA Communications. The site is off I-70, and on the travel route between Aspen and Grand Junction, according to the National Association of Tower Erectors, which helped organize the activity. Pai tweeted the structure “felt like Everest.”
Before his ascent, Pai received safety instruction and fall protection equipment from EasTex Tower. They discussed the work they do each day, building, maintaining and deploying communications tower sites and associated wireless infrastructure. Their tower technicians accompanied the Chairman on his climb and EasTex safety and SBA personnel were on-hand to help. EasTex Tower is a NATE Star Initiative participating company. The STAR Initiative site safety audits and program documentation requirements have enabled participants to proactively identify and correct hundreds of job site hazards and deficiencies since the program’s inception, according to NATE.
EasTex Tower President/CEO Jim Miller, who’s also Vice Chair of the NATE Board, applauded Pai’s initiative to get out in the field and “experience first-hand the safe work practices, diverse skill sets, knowledge base and work-ethic that are required of today’s tower technicians to conduct safe and successful wireless deployments.”
“The Chairman’s site visit served to reinforce the prominent role communications tower owners, contractors and technicians continue to play in enabling connectivity to all sectors of our diverse economy,” stated David Sams, Vice President of Risk Management at SBA Communications. He’s also Chairman of the Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program.
Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) recently asked Pai when he was going to climb a tower, noting that his colleague, Commissioner Brendan Carr, has now scaled two structures, Inside Towers reported. Pai committed to climbing a small tower, acknowledging Carr’s youth and fitness.
The Chairman is visiting Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah this week to highlight how closing the digital divide can create jobs and increase digital opportunity.
August 22, 2018
