#chairmanscorner

[natesafety]

Chairman's Corner - 2024 Tower Times Magazine Volume 1

What a busy fall this has been, time has flown by since the NATE Summer Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. We are now in the final stages of preparing for NATE UNITE 2024, in Memphis, Tennessee. I am very excited about the plans for NATE UNITE 2024. The Trade Show Committee is continually making improvements and we are encouraged by the early registrations indicating this may be one of our biggest and best shows yet.

November was a busy month with our C-Suite tour to AT&T in Dallas, Texas, down to Houston, Texas, to meet Crown Castle and then up to Bellevue, Washington to meet T-Mobile. These meetings provide a great venue to discuss and better understand the needs of some of our larger customers and it allows us a forum to present many of the issues that are important to our member companies. Topics ranged from matrix pricing, safety metrics, MSA terms, third-party vetting systems, inflation, worker recruitment and retention issues, all the way to regulatory matters and how we can support each other to provide a continual future flow of work, which will support our industry.

A few days later, we went to Denver, Colorado, where Todd Schlekeway received the Jay Kitchen Leadership Award from Radio Club of America. The Radio Club was formed in 1909 and is the world’s oldest professional society for persons involved in the wireless industry. It was a great night honoring the award winners and was topped off by Marty Cooper as the keynote speaker for the event.

November ended with the election of new officers for the NATE Board of Directors. We had eleven candidates running for the four open positions. I want to congratulate Randy Scott and Aaron Paulette, who will remain on the board. Joel Hightower and Casey Banner will both be joining the Board at NATE UNITE 2024 in February. All the candidates did a great job representing themselves and the wireless industry. I would also like to thank Jimmy Miller, who will be stepping down from the board after 10 years of service to NATE. Although Jimmy will be missed in the board room, he will continue to support NATE’s Legislative & Regulatory Council.

December started with my fifth visit to Washington D.C. in the last two years. This trip was to visit several new Senators, Congressmen, Congresswomen, four FCC Commissioners, and the Department of Labor. The topics with the Senators and Congressional Representatives revolved around the spectrum authority delays and the impact that it is having on our industry and in particular the NATE member companies. Simply put, without spectrum, we do not have anything to build. The next topic was the hold up in D.C. over the allocation of new frequency bands for 6G and beyond.

The United States has continually been a world leader in technology and this delay has put us at least two years behind other countries around the globe.

Our last meeting was the signing of the NATE-OSHA-FCC National Strategic Partnership. This new 5-year agreement will allow NATE to continue leading the charge towards identifying trends in the workplace that would otherwise lead to injuries or fatalities.

Over the last two years, the committees have reviewed over 5,500 individual jobsite audits and categorized tens of thousands of data points collected through the NATE STAR participants and other industry partners. If you are not a NATE STAR participant, I would encourage you to consider it. As Chairman, I am very proud to have signed this agreement on behalf of NATE.

Victor Drouin is the Chairman of NATE and President of Green Mountain Communications, Inc. in Pembroke, New Hampshire. He can be reached at 603-717- 7117 or v.drouin@ greenmtncomm.com.

[natesafe]

Chairman's Corner - 2023 Tower Times Volume 3

As we emerge from our NATE Member Congressional Fly-In Event in D.C. and other prominent industry conferences this past spring, it is clear that there is a change in the air. The primary conversations evolve around work slowdown, bankruptcies of major vendors, matrix pricing cuts, and additional flow down of duties and responsibilities to the contractors who perform the work. We have inflation at 15%, compared to the Carter Administration in the mid to late 1970's which peaked at 14.6%, and we have interest rates rising at a pace only surpassed during the Carter years.

This is a time when we can look at the landscape as a glass half full or half empty; with every downturn in the economy or event in our history, we can look to people that take these opportunities to either hang their heads or innovate and improve themselves.

As contractors, engineers, suppliers, and manufacturers in the telecom industry we know one thing, people will always need to communicate, and we are the people that enable the connectivity to make that a reality.

As NATE member companies, we have all been riding a hectic pace for over 10 years of increasing build plans as we rolled from 3G to LTE to 4G and now into 5G. We have seen a tremendous boom in the macro tower business and a constant uptick in small cell and fiber deployments. There has been a lot to do.

The upside is that these installations need to be maintained and continually expanded. The work that was done 10 years ago by the carrier’s field technicians is now done by NATE member companies. The radio heads are now mounted on light fixtures, telephone poles, and towers. This is a time when companies that invest or have invested in technical training will lead the next generation, building and maintaining our communication infrastructure.

Over the last several years, there has been an increasing rate of access to cheap capital, and many larger companies acquired into the telecom space assuming the bubble would never burst. Some companies agreed to subpar pricing for the opportunity to tie up large volumes of work and now with increased inflation and interest rates, that pricing no longer looks quite as good as it did 18 months ago. As the owner of a contractor business for over 30 years, my advice is to know your costs and understand what it takes to operate your business profitably.

During the recent round of NATE C-Suite meeting visits with some of the industry’s major customers (carriers and vertical real estate/tower owners), we had some great dialogue discussing the pricing and, although it will take some time to get major change, we are delivering a compelling and worthy message. NATE UNITE 2024 in Memphis will also have several educational sessions on business management topics that will provide immense value and I look forward to seeing you there.

Victor Drouin is the Chairman of NATE and President of Green Mountain Communications, Inc. in Pembroke, New Hampshire. He can be reached at 603-717-7117 or v.drouin@greenmtncomm.com.

[vinniechase]

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[natesafe]

Chairmans Corner

2023 Tower Times Magazine - Volume 1

The NATE Executive Committee just completed two weeks of meetings across the nation. Week one meetings were held with various committees and congressional staff while week two included meetings with large industry stakeholders such as carriers and tower owners. The theme of these discussions was consistent.

The Workforce and the Wireless Industry

People got paid to stay home for a year and guess what? They like it! So many jobs remain unfilled as perhaps society got a bit spoiled. Carry that thought over to what we do and ask the question, “how many workers commute hundreds of feet vertically to their job?” Then upon completing the commute, the work skills involved include rigging, steel installation and modifications, electrical, fiber, and RF troubleshooting and installation.

When sharing this story in the halls of Congress, everyone we met was amazed as they had never considered what it takes to keep the nation’s wireless infrastructure online; a wireless infrastructure that is taken for granted, as common as 60hz electricity.

What Are We Doing About It?

We are spreading the word and in doing that we made a movie, Vertical Freedom, to bring to light the rewards of making the climb, which is now available for rent or purchase. We also have a Workforce Development Committee and have several programs in place with vocational colleges across the nation.

These programs offer formalized training and certification where upon graduation from the program the student is ready to go to work. We continue to work with our military partners like Warriors4Wireless to help place our military veterans into the workforce.

Visits to Tower Sites

NATE and our Washington D.C. partners Guidepost Strategies accomplished nine tower site visits in the past few months. Congressional leaders, their staff, and local leaders including college deans and town mayors witnessed the work that is going on at these tower sites and what it takes to build and maintain them firsthand.

Federal Communications Commission

If you think about it, the commodity that serves as the backbone of our industry is spectrum (frequencies in an infinite amount). New technology allows a new band of frequency to open, older bands get repurposed, or bands get modified for more efficient use. Regardless of what happens, we suit up and go to work!

Additionally, we are partners with the FCC as a function of the NATE-OSHA-FCC Partnership whereby we all share one common goal: A safer workplace.

I would be remiss if I did not mention FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has served as an advocate for the tower technician, recognizing the hard work and safety aspects of our industry. His voice alone has paved the way for more invitations inside the D.C. Beltway.

In competition with many others seeking a stable workforce, our challenges are most unique, and NATE is pulling every lever possible to attract and retain workers for our industry. ●

Jimmy Miller is the Chairman of NATE and is President of MILLERCO in Gulfport, Mississippi. He can be reached at 228-832-3352 or jlmiller@millercoinc.com.