Your Cell Phone and Fixed-Mobile Convergence

Much of the success of recent Apple products has been their elegant user interface making IPods/Ipads/IPhones easy to use. Google Android has emulated the Apple approach with great success. Simplicity of use has proven to be a viable business model. Smart phones and other smart data devices are taking over the world, or so it seems. My daughter and sub-teen grandchildren recently informed me that, even though I am "the greatest grandfather in the world", they only do texting, and that voice calls and email are yesterday's news. As I said technology is taking over our lives.

The cell phone carriers have not been oblivious to user wishes and demands. As a result, data usage on cell phones, notebook computers and pad devices has been increasing exponentially. In an effort to further simplify using a cell phone,, the carriers are migrating towards what is called Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC). FMC is the bringing together of previously disconnected communication technologies (cellular and wifi) to form a seamless umbrella of access for all modern data devices including smart cell phones such as IPhones, pad devices such as IPads and IPods and notebook computers.

The ultimate goal of FMC is to optimize transmission of all data, voice and video communications to and among end users, no matter what their locations or devices. In the more immediate future, FMC means that a single device can connect through and be switched between wired (wifi) and wireless networks.

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Rogers and other carriers currently offer FMC to their business clients. Modern computer driven communication technologies enable companies to meld together various networks into a transparent web.

Any discussion about cell towers needs to be weighed against the overwhelming onslaught of newer technologies that offer vastly improver service along with simplicity of use compared to cell tower technology. FMC will offer phone users the option of a single phone number that will connect to land line phones, cell phones and other data devices such as IPads. FMC offers the opportunity to greatly reduce cell phone and/or land line costs while improving reception.

The backbone of Fixed-Mobile Convergence is the marriage of cellular networks with wifi networks. Most people on Longboat Key already have wifi in their homes. The town needs to extend wifi coverage throughout the community by installing a community wifi network on the island. Currently there are more than 126,000 square miles of municipal wifi globally, with the majority being in North America and Asia. I work with local tourist facilities where people ask for wifi access far more than they want cell service. Visitors want to be connected more than they need voice communications. We already have fairly good outdoor cell coverage. There are small pockets of poor service, along with individual residences with building construction issues. All these individuals can easily solve their indoor reception problems by switching carriers and/or using a wifi based FMC app on their cell phones.

Fixed-mobile convergence works will all cell carriers, even for foreign visitors who will no longer need expensive SIM cards or expensive global cell phones. In addition, all their other data devices will also function throughout our community.

Fixed-Mobile Convergence will deliver superior indoor cell phone access compared to any sort of cell tower that may or may not be constructed with one or two carriers. Cell towers will never improve access for all our data devices that we love and seem to need.

Fixed-Mobile Convergence is already in use by all the major cell carriers. We may never get a cell tower depending the economy and our community's continuing shift towards seasonal property owners. On the other hand FMC will be island-wide, indoors and outdoors for all data devices including smart cell phones. We need to embrace today's technological advances and leave the past behind us.

You Should Know

You should know that your developer-friendly town government is rapidly trying to install tall cell towers up and down Longboat Key. The planning and zoning board is discussing opening up all town property for tall cell towers in direct repudiation of cell tower codes put into place less than three years ago after strong opposition to cell towers by the community. The town is doing this without any needs assessment or economic impact studies. Below are the results of a few studies about the impact of cell towers on real estate values.

The Bond and Hue - Proximate Impact Study:

The Bond and Hue study conducted in 2004 involved the alanysis of 9,514 residential home sales in 10 suburbs. The study reflected that close proximity to a Cell Tower reduced price by 15% on average.

The Bond and Wang - Transaction Based Market Study:

The Bond and Wang study involved the analysis of 4,283 residential home sales in 4 suburbs between 1984 and 2002. The study reflected that close proximity to a Cell Tower reduced price between 20.7%
and 21%.

The Bond and Beamish - Opinion Survey Study:

The Bond and Beamish study involved surveying whether people who lived within 100' of a tower would have to reduce the sales price of their home. 38% said they would reduce the price by more than 20%, 38% said they would reduce the price by only 1%-9%, and 24% said they would reduce their sale price by 10%-19%.

"As a licensed real estate broker with over 30 years of experience, it is
my professional opinion that the installation of a Cellular Tower can significantly reduce the value of neighboring residential properties"

Lawrence Oxman, Licensed Real Estate Broker

The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a denial of a Cell Tower application based upon testimony of residents and a real estate broker, that the Tower would reduce the values of property which were in close proximity to the Tower.

From Longboat Key real estate brokers:

Bruce Myer, of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, said that he doesn’t believe a tower is needed. “Based on the level of service that is achieved, I don’t see that it would be a help to real-estate values,” he said.

Hannerle Moore, a veteran Realtor with Michael Saunders and Co., also questioned whether a cell tower was needed. She said that she uses Verizon, which works with few interruptions on the north end, and said that she recently had a buyer for a $3.2 million home who walked away from the sale out of concerns about the proposed tower. “People perceive it as ugly, but, more importantly, as a health hazard,” she said. “Today’s buyers are into living longer and healthier, they take the time to go to Whole Foods and exercise, and they’re not going to move into a community with a cell tower.”

I have discussed cell towers on Longboat Key with several other island brokers. They all agree that cell towers in an exclusive community negatively impact real estate values and sales.

Oddly Longboat Key real estate agent Barbara Ackerman of Caldwell Banker responded to a request by Jim Eatrides, who is trying to get a 150 foot cell tower at the Island Chapel, to evaluate the impact of a "stealth" tower on Longboat Key. It should be noted that Ms. Ackerman recently sold Mr. Eatrides home on Longboat Key. Ms. Ackerman states “As a real estate professional with extensive knowledge of and experience in the Longboat Key real estate market, my opinion is that the proposed tower would not have a negative impact on nearby residential properties.”  Perhaps Ms. Ackerman did not know that the proposed tower is not a "stealth" tower but a rather imposing edifice 42 inches in diameter at the top (see picture below). It should also be noted that in Mr. Eatrides cell tower application, now before the town, that Ms. Ackerman's assessment stands alone with one other impact study from a blue collar neighborhood. 

Ask yourself if you had options would you purchase property close to a cell tower? If no, is it because you believe that other people will not want to purchase a home near a tall cell tower?

What the planning and zoning bord and the commission are about to do may seriously impact real estate values on Longboat Key in the tens of millions of dollars in lost property values as a direct result of unsightly cell towers in an upscale community.

Is it worth it to apease a few residents and a local cell tower developer? That is for you to decide. Do we need island-wide wifi for our notebooks, smart phones and IPads more than we need improved indoor cell phone reception for a few seasonal residents on the north end? Our mostly appointed commissioners are most likely on the verge of causing real damage to our real estate values. Why?

I urge every resident to become part of the discussion. I feel things are bad enough without our commissioners causing further declines in property values.

Proposed 150 foot cell tower as Island Chapel.

The Blind Leading the Blind

Why does the commission and the planning and zoning board avoid technical issues such as water/sewer pipeline projects or deciding which equipment is purchased by our police and public safety departments, while at the same time seeking to micro-manage far more technically complex issues such as community-wide telecommunication?

At a recent commission meeting Ms. Simpson, the planning and zoning department director, told the commissioners that the town's public safety managers might want to locate 800 megahertz antennas on cell towers to improve the current spotty public safety band radio reception on the island. Spotty 800 MHz reception is common in all sorts of communities from large cities to rural areas. Many of these municipalities employ vehicle mounted booster radios with high-gain antennas to insure adequate radio reception inside buildings and outlying areas. Having a vehicle mounted signal booster provides a strong signal wherever police and fire staff are located. Having the radio signal in close proximity to the hand-held radios is a superior solution to a distant cell tower, where the signal may be attenuated by intervening buildings and trees. There are many companies that supply the public safety sector with 800 MHz vehicle mounted booster packs. I assume that our fire and safety personnel already use vehicle mounted booster packs. I assume the booster packs work well. I hope the town has not been waiting years for the possibility of using a cell tower when good safety communications has always been available.

Why are we looking at cell tower solutions that have a profound negative impact on property values when there may be far less invasive solutions? Is the commission sufficiently informed to make optimal decisions in highly technical engineering fields?

Too often the previous town manager used his golden Rolodex of no-bid contract vendors to inform the commission about various topics. For the past 20 years I have cautioned the town about limiting itself to the proposals from a single company that also stands to make a lot of money if their advice is accepted. I congratulate the current commission for breaking a decades-old dysfunction by demanding that town staff do a more thorough job of supplying the commission with accurate and complete information. However, if the messengers are themselves uninformed then the process cannot succeed. Such is the history of cell towers on Longboat. To date, the entire cell phone process has been a monologue conducted by a cell tower salesman who represents himself as an expert. For some reason the previous town manager and Ms. Simpson have doggedly insisted that the cell tower salesperson's pitch was all that the commission needed to know.

I have no idea how a cell tower salesman managed to convince Ms. Simpson and the former town manager that they need look no further than the top of a 150 foot tower to solve all our communications needs. Unfortunately, this is a very limited solution for a much greater challenge that confronts our community as we begin to enter the baby-boomer era of fast evolving wireless telecommunications technologies. 

During the past four or more years that the cell tower company has pitched their rather imposing structure at one place or another on Longboat, there has never been a discussion about the adverse impact on local property values. Finally, two prominent real estate people have come forward and affirmed that cell towers in upscale communities seriously impact surrounding property values. Today the Observer printed their comments. I am sure more real estate people will join the chorus when they realize that a cell tower will scare people away from our community. People who can afford to purchase property anywhere they choose, do not choose communities with ugly and unsafe cell towers in their midst. 

Longboat Key deserves a well designed modern communications infrastructure. Unfortunately the town staff in charge of advising the planning and zoning board and the commission appear to be too cozy with the cell tower salespeople. I am uncomfortable seeing Steve Shields, planning and zoning staff member in charge of the current cell tower application at the Island Chapel, with his arm over the shoulder of Mr. Eatrides, cell tower applicant, at Harry's Cafe, beaming from ear to ear. I am uncomfortable with Ms. Simpson repeatedly sitting with the cell tower salespeople at advertised commission and planning and zoning meetings. I dislike the appearance of bias and a good-old-boy relationship between public servants and salespeople looking for favors. I am not alone in having strong objections to either Ms. Simpson or Mr. Shields having anything to do with cell tower applications or town communications policy. I do not feel that either employee has the requisite credentials or technical background to be in charge of such a complex and important element in our community's future.

We need to do better now that we have turned a new leaf so to speak.

Asking for Informed Government

This picture is a licensed surveyor's to-scale rendition of the proposed 150 foot cell tower at the Island Chapel using the dimensions appearing in Ridan's application. The upper 60 feet of the tower is 42 inches in diameter and 72 inches at the base.

Please note the recently purchased Grand Mariner luxury condominiums in the background along with the church steeple. The Grand Mariner building lies within 260 feet of the proposed cell tower that will be located directly in their line-of-sight.

 Did you know that on September 1st the planning and zoning board spent over an hour listening to a lawyer named Gary Resnic, from Gray Robinson in Boca Raton, about multiple cell towers on Longboat Key? Neither did I, until after the planning and zoning board meeting, even though Steve Shields, who is in charge of the current cell tower application, was asked about the meeting agenda two days prior to the meeting, and said the only agenda item was the transportation elements of the comprehensive plan. Mr. Resnic's hour plus presentation did not appear in the published agenda, so no one from the public was informed about a major discussion by the planning and zoning board about cell towers. What has happened to fair and open government in our community that people are sneaked into advertised public meetings? The planning and zoning board then spent less than 20 minutes on the advertised transportation agenda item. I also wish to point out that even if a resident had accidentally attended the meeting, their participation would have most likely been limited to all of 3 minutes. A few years ago when an industry expert from Next-G traveled hundreds of miles to address the commission about DAS, the commission granted him all of 3 minutes, while listening to the cell tower salesperson for hours on end, meeting after meeting. On two occasions the town manager conducted private meetings with the cell tower salesperson, outside the commission chamber, in the middle of an advertised public commission meeting. If the planning and zoning board now contends, after talking to a cell tower lawyer for an hour, that it has vetted the island's communications needs, and commences to once again recommend multiple cell towers up and down our island, then I feel they have failed their fiduciary obligation to serve the public to the best of their abilities. I contend that talking for an hour with a cell tower lawyer, who admitted that he had no technical knowledge about cell towers, the need for cell towers, or the public's desire to have or not have tall cell towers within their community, then the planning and zoning board has failed their duty.

The last time the planning and zoning board recommended multiple cell towers on Longboat Key, the community responded with a petition, with over 630 signatures from north end registered voters, that they did not want any structures over 35 feet. They packed the commission chamber on several occasions and the commission voted unanimously to retain our current cell tower codes. That commission listened and are to be congratulated for being responsive to their constituents. The current chairperson of the planning and zoning board recently stated that we now have a different commission with reference to long standing cell tower policies supported by decades of previous town commissions.

Now we have a commission, along with their appointed planning and zoning board, that do not appear to be even slightly concerned with what the residents want. For the past two years the word resident has been seldom mentioned by the commission. On the other hand, we here more and more about how it is the town's obligation to promote business and development on Longboat, and that the codes and comp plan must be gutted to welcome unbridled development. Cell towers will most likely be their first concerted effort, and their actions will have a severe financial impact on surrounding property values, while reaping huge financial gains for cell tower companies. All this without ever asking industry experts to educate the community about what is best for our exclusive town.

The unwillingness of the commission and the planning and zoning board to get input from anyone except cell tower salespeople, and cell tower company lawyers, will most likely prevent more technically advanced forms of communications from ever reaching our island, thus impeding our path to becoming a technically advanced community that will attract tech-savvy baby-boomer home-buyers. This has been confirmed by a large cell tower company executive.

Our neighbors on Anna Maria have retained an industry expert to assist their efforts to rewrite their communications codes. Here the commission will control the process to include input exclusively from cell tower salespeople and their lawyers. This is unfortunate if your are a homeowner. Our community needs island-wide broadband wifi along with less expensive alternatives to the high fees being charged by Comcast and Verizon. When visitors come to our island they bring their IPads and notebook computers. They want wifi far more that cell phones since they already have VOIP phone apps such as Line2 on all their smart devices. These apps are carrier neutral so even people with small carriers receive great cell phone reception indoors and outdoors if wifi is available.

The Key Club might attract more and younger quests if they offered wifi in the hotel rooms instead of just in the lobby area. Longboat Key is badly behind the times in terms of modern communications available in most other up-scale communities. Pervasive wifi is essential to compete in these times. Cell towers are antiquated and soon to be replaced by less expensive technologies. Ask your children what they think? Do you want a cell tower salesperson to decide your communications future?

If the commission and the planning and zoning board make uninformed decisions, advised only by cell tower salespeople and their lawyers, they will undoubtedly make uninformed decisions and we all know what that usually means. Who will buy homes in a community that is controlled by people who have no regard for well established and proved community codes? Who will buy homes in a community divided by strife and lawsuits and a town government that has ceased to listen to its people?