Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Hidden signals: Antennas blend with the environment

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 12:59:00 -0500

March 21, 2003
Hidden signals: Antennas blend with the environment

Debbie Sokei   Pacific Business News

A tree will sprout soon on a Kalihi Valley mountainside that will have rungs around it,
instead of bark.
T-Mobile, formerly Voice Stream Wireless, plans to erect an 80-foot antenna and camouflage
it as a tree, complete with branches.

The concept, called stealth sites, is quickly catching on in Hawaii as local carriers are
becoming more sensitive to aesthetic and environmental concerns, said Laura Altchul,
director of government affairs for T-Mobile.
"Our first priority is to make sure the design of the site meets two requirements," she
said. "First, it must improve the coverage of the area. Second, we must be sensitive and
minimize the visual impact."

In addition to a tree, T-Mobile has erected stealth flag poles, chimneys and boulders —
but not here in Hawaii — and antennas affixed to buildings that blend in so well that they
go unnoticed, Altchul said.

It costs about 50 percent more to put up a stealth antenna than a monopole, she said. The
stealth tree, for example, costs between $60,000 and $100,000.

T-Mobile is in the process of getting the necessary City and County of Honolulu permits to
build the stealth pine tree antenna on the Ewa mountainside of Kalihi Valley. The project
has been ongoing for over a year as T-Mobile works to meet the concerns of area residents.

"They bent over backwards to accommodate the community," said Maryrose McClelland,
chairwoman of the Kalihi Valley Neighborhood Board.

An initial idea was to place the antenna on a building at Kalihi Valley Elementary School
and use it as a flag pole or a lamp post.

But the stealth tree became a unanimous choice, McClelland said.
"The community is very much in favor of that because that mountainside is known in our
community as the utility pole capital of Oahu," she said. "It would be the tallest tree on
the mountainside."

Although T-Mobile will be leasing the land from the city, the school will get the lease
money for educational programs.
Verizon Wireless also has several strategically placed camouflage antennas on buildings.

"It blends with the color and configurations of the building," said Georgia Taylor, public
relations manager for Verizon's Northwest region.

For competitive reasons, Taylor would not disclose how many stealth antennas Verizon has.

Stealth Concealment Solutions, based in North Carolina, has been in the business of hiding
antennas for the past 10 years, said Sean McLernon, chief executive officer. He says the
$150 million industry continues to grow.

"As more and more towns and municipalities discover it, they ask for it for by name," he
said. "They understand they [antennae] don't have to be an eyesore."

McLernon gets requests for all kinds of concealment, including flag poles, clock towers,
chimneys, crosses, water towers and a replica of a 100-year-old windmill.

"Just about anything you can imagine, and the list goes on and on," he said.
The flag pole next to City Mill in the Town Center of Mililani is a Nextel antenna.

"Sometimes certain situations call for blending into your environment," said Ken Furukawa,
Nextel area marketing manager.
The antenna was powered up in February and flags fly on the 50-foot pole.

"The color is the same, the size is the same and it's going to be stealth enough where you
won't notice it," Furukawa said.
Just like T-Mobile, Nextel sat through neighborhood board meetings listening to public
testimonies, applied for city permits and got approval from land owner Castle & Cooke, the
master developer of the area, to erect the antenna.

"There's lots of checks and balances," Furukawa said.

For competitive reasons, Furukawa declined to disclose the number and costs of stealth
antennas. Nextel is paying City Mill to keep the flag pole antenna there, he said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2003/03/24/focus1.html?t=printable
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