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Eagle Point nixes Sprint tower By Melissa Martin EAGLE POINT � Sprint Wireless will have to find a new place to put a cell tower after the City Council voted against renting space on the "E Hill." The council denied Mericom Corp.�s proposal to put a 60-foot camouflaged tower with a 10-foot antenna on the hillside near the city�s reservoir. They cited concerns about location and the possibility of lights on top. "The tower would have held a commanding position over the city of Eagle Point," said Councilman Garey Walruff. "Had there been a light put on the top of that, it would have been visible from every point in Eagle Point." Sprint has another location in mind for the tower that�s needed to help meet customer demand, said Mark Grimes, regional vice president for Mericom, which has the franchise to develop Sprint�s local network. The Eagle Point tower is one of six needed between Cottage Grove and the Siskiyou Pass. The towers would augment Sprint�s year-old system in a region where cell phone use is rising. More Rogue Valley residents carry cell phones with miniature Web browsers and e-mail access. They also hook wireless phones to their laptop computers, said Brenda Barker, manager of the Sprint store in Medford. Sprint is one of about 10 wireless providers in Southern Oregon. Such technological wonders require more cell towers, partly because the non-cell phone companies operate on a higher bandwidth � 1,900 megahertz, Grimes said. Telephone companies like U.S. Cellular and AT&T operate at 850 megahertz, which is a more pliable bandwidth that can penetrate objects and send signals farther. Higher bandwidths require line-of-site and a "clear, unimpeded view from the tower to the target area it�s trying to cover," Grimes said. The way cell phone companies identify tower sites is by performing drive tests, he said. "We have a chase vehicle that drives the streets, monitors the signals and then adds some real-life data to the computer model," Grimes explained. If the site needs better coverage, Mericom seeks approval to put up a tower. "More and more people will see, in the next 10 years, the way we communicate now using land-based telephone systems will greatly change and impact all people, whether they are cell phone users now or not," Grimes said. Local cell phone use is growing partly because the Rogue Valley draws so many tourists who come for winter and summer recreation, the Britt Festivals, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and more, he said. "People use wireless technology and they bring it with them as they travel. Networks (cell towers) have to provide for them." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.