BrandWood Wireless Inc.

02/07/2025

Now Hiring. Previous telecomm climbing experience required.

BrandWood Wireless Inc.

05/14/2022

Great job Amin and Henry on your successful rescue.

Multiple agencies responded to a man who threatened to jump off an antenna tower in La Feria, according to Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza.

06/12/2019

The following is a repost from a closed group I contribute to. I'm posting here for the public and those who want to comment.

HOW PAY IS DETERMINED.
(this does not apply to charity cases or irresponsible governments)

In a free market, all payment boils down to two things:
1 - How replaceable is the person.
2 - How much the company can afford.

You can be the irreplaceable engine of your company, but if you are doing small or low profit jobs, the company can only afford small pay.
You could be working for a multi-billion dollar company with eight figure profits, but never reach six figure pay as long as there are workers available at five figures with the same skill set.

The above may sound cold but it is the practice of anyone with a dollar in their pocket. Whether you are contracting a plumber for your house or buying food at the store, you too work within a range of funds to get the best value at the best price.

So how can you get paid more? In general, make yourself irreplaceable. Grow the company you work for and the industry as a whole. Start looking at yourself as a company and your time and skills as the assets. Spend them wisely and in the best paying market. Look at those in positions above you as partners in company “You”. I guarantee you see things they don’t and they see things you don’t. Put aside your petty grievances (they are infinite) and work as a team. If you want to be wealthy, you have to make others wealthy in the process. If those above you don’t understand how this works, keep working hard until you find a company that does.

05/18/2019

The following is a repost from a closed group I contribute to. I'm posting here for the public and those who want to comment.

Vital Elements of a Tower Crew

Think of a tower held up by four anchors. It only takes failure of one anchor bring the whole structure down. Vital elements are the anchors and the tower is the crew/company. All four must be kept in working order.

1 - Culture - The Culture is vital because crew members need more than just a job with a paycheck. The company has to cultivate a positive work environment but not turn the site into a frat house. Balance is needed with a hierarchy of values. If the crew/company is a business first and a fraternity second, you will have lots of business and lots of fraternizing. If you make it a fraternity first and a business second, you will end up with neither. Every group has a culture, leaders would be wise to set it before Lord of the Flies mentality takes over. Members who are toxic and do not share the crew’s values should not be tolerated just because they fulfill the other three elements.

2 - Safety - This is becoming more and more important to the investor and the work (and for good reason). No matter how good you are at the other three elements, one major safety event can bring both the worker and the investor to the end. It's like the old adage: “you can spend 30 years building something and 30 seconds destroying it.”

3 - Workmanship - Quality work has a range where you should always stay on the high side of. Its true you can stay in business with low quality workmanship, but you’ll only survive. Those that want to thrive have to dedicate themselves to the highest level of workmanship possible. All other elements can be strong but if your closeout package is incomplete and/or not to spec., you will slip towards the low paying jobs.

4 - Efficiency - This is what makes the boss and bookkeeper exercise. It's what sets wages and how much of a life you can have outside of work. Your crew can be happy, safe and deliver a punch free site, but it will be your last if you spend a week building a site worth two days.

Each element has sub-elements but the four listed are main areas of focus.

05/18/2019

The following is a repost from a closed group I contribute to. I'm posting here for the public and those who want to comment.

CORE ISSUES WITH THE TOWER INDUSTRY for both the worker and the investor.

The core issues (that have few solutions) have lead to secondary issues that exacerbate the industry. The secondary issues are a post on their own and where solutions and lots of room for advancement exist, but core issues have to be understood.

1-Difficulty in Accessing to the Work Zone. Heights of the work zone put a high physical demand on the worker’s body and limits who can work and inspect the zone. Network and tower owners will probably never personally visit one of the most critical part of their investment. The physical demands of climbing reduces the experience and knowledgable “grey hair” that is needed on site to train and supervise less experienced workers.

2-Non-Uniformity of Sites and Installs. A critical thinker who can solve problems is required when every installation is a custom design. The worker has to consider the existing carrier equipment, the new carrier equipment, the style of the mount, the style of the tower structure, the layout of the compound that determines rigging or heavy equipment, and much more. No two sites are the same. This requires extra energy and resources for planning and solving an issue that changes with every site. The worker is limited on planning and foreseeing the install and the investor is limited on budget and schedule forecasting.

3-Ever Changing Technology and Standards. It's hard to truly master a trade when the technology and standards for installing that technology is constantly changing. A worker can reach high pay by mastering a technology only to find himself in a novice position when a new technology/project replaces the old. Crew owners struggle during the transition period where they have to continue paying the worker’s high rate (earned during the old project) while they retrain, re-tool and have low productivity during the new projects learning curve. For Investors, billions are put into installing the latest and greatest systems only to find themselves needing to invest billions more when technology changes.

We all can cite exceptions to some of the above issues but this list speaks to the industry as a whole. Apply the list above to the lineman or wind energy industry and you see why those two appear more advanced.