a new tower was put up near the school in locust fork alabama

You've mentioned the tower. Have antennas been mounted on it? Is there cable connecting the antennas to equipment enclosures (cabinets, buildings)? Have power and phones lines been supplied? (Check for electric meters, labeled with carriers' names.)

The electric meters and phone line terminations are likely mounted on a four by eight plywood sheet, mounted on two posts. This will be near a parking spot, or along the access drive. The phone line terminations should be outside where the ILEC personnel can reach them for testing. Electric meters can be inside or outside the fence. If they are inside, the meters can be read through the fence.

Since it doesn't register on any of your handsets, I'd say it isn't operating yet. In your area you could expect:
Corr Wireless
Verizon
T-Mobile (near major roads)
Sprint (same)
AT&T (same)
SouthernLink
Nextel

COtech

 

What you could also do, is post a picture of the tower on here, and maybe one of our tower experts in that area might be able to tell you who's on it.

 

Like COtech said, the easiest and most reliable way to find out what carrier is on a tower is to take a peak at the power meters. Any new site should have the power meters labeled, and will tell you who is on that tower. So will the equipment, as they usually have an 800 number can you can call and find out who it is that way.

 

Yeah, sorry, my idea is a little off-beat. Just an excuse to get another tower pic I guess. :O ha ha.

 

Fine, fine, fine. I'll put a few up that I have been hording.

 

Atta boy Yankee! I somehow had the feeling you had a few pics with ya.

I've been swamped with work and haven't been able to get out for some good pics, so I have to hope for someone else to put their's up, ha.

 

Done. Just 2 for now though.

 

I have seen situations where it took over 6 months before a tower was transmitting a signal from the time the tower was physically constructed. It could just be that the site is not yet active while waiting for certain equipment like T1's or final permits to be issued.

 

This would be helpful, it may not even be a cell tower.

 

Are you able to get a picture of this tower?? It would be interesting to see what this tower is. Also someone else may be able to identify the other carriers on the tower, if any.

 

Aah, that's one of my recent pics of a Bell Mobility tower I believe. Funny that you should pick one of mine...ha ha.

Well it's a guyed tower then, that's for sure.

 

Hmm.. I don't know what you mean by "let it sway". But yeah, it sounds like your basic guyed tower. Lots of those around everywhere, they're pretty common.

 

I'm actually in Canada...ha ha. They don't have AT&T here. The 3 big cell companies are Rogers Wireless, Telus Mobility, and Bell Mobility.

The design of the tower will have nothing to do with which company is using the tower. It will have more to do with what is the most appropriate to be built in the area. (Eg). A tall guyed tower may need to be to be built to cover a large area.

 

Well an extremely tall tower could be a guyed tower, but it could also be a 3 or sometimes 4-legged latticed tower or I've seen some pretty tall monopoles too.

I'm not sure which is cheaper to build, but if cost is an issue and one design is a little cheaper and efficient to build then another then that could be the case too.

The height of the tower could also be due to if one or more carriers were to come along and co-locate on the structure later on.

There are different reasons as to why a tower is built a certain way.

 

By the way.....I didn't notice this post you made earlier, until just now.

Yeah, camera phone pics are just as good too. You said the tower is located in Alabama, so just upload the picture into the Alabama album. It's pretty easy to upload a picture.