Council approves new SaskTel telecom tower

“They’ve watched us on TV, and they said ‘you guys sound like an Industry Canada hearing. That you’re debating whether it’s going to interfere, whether it’s not going to interfere and none of you are qualified to do that.’ And we are not, and I’ve said that,” Dionne said.

He said he was told his job is to decide whether he agrees with the location of the tower or not.

“If there’s interference, and you’ve heard from both, and I’ve asked them both, they’re both licensed with Industry Canada, and if the regulations are broke[n], that they have a remedy, and they go to Industry Canada. It’s not our job to police the noise and the stuff from the towers. It’s our job to allow the location,” he said.

SaskTel originally applied for a permit to erect a 25 metre ‘stealth tower’ in March, near the site of a utility building it owns within the city. The new tower would replace a temporary tower it’s currently using to ease network capacity issues.

However, it’s also adjacent to an existing tower owned by Zurakowski. He had presented his three-point argument against SaskTel’s tower to council prior to Monday’s decision.

The owner of the local internet company was concerned that the proposed tower would be 40 feet away from his existing tower, that it would affect the noise level and cause transmission problems for Gotgeek, as well as the re-sale value of his property.

Zurakowski filed a number of letters with the city in support of his case from people within the industry. He claimed the city never followed up on those letters.

“I think if there ever was an opportunity for this council and the City of Prince Albert to support small business, to take a stand and put yourself in my shoes, this would be the time,” he told council.

“I think you really have to look at this closely, and I’m from the private world, private enterprise, I have dollars invested in this. I’d like to preserve those. I cannot afford the risk that something could happen and we could deal with it in good faith.”

He met with representatives from SaskTel prior to the council meeting. SaskTel, in its defense, re-iterated that it follows Industry Canada’s strict regulations regarding interference.

“The strict Industry Canada equipment regulations in place are sufficient to allow equipment to operate in these different bands without any interference issues,” director of customer service operations for Prince Albert and district Jeff McKeand said.

He said that in Birch Hills, one of SaskTel’s towers co-exists with Access Communications, less than 15 metres away on the same property, as well as an adjacent credit union property using a similar spectrum to Gotgeek.

McKeand said when choosing this site, SaskTel took precautions to ensure that the tower would not cause negative interference or affect Gotgeek’s operations.

The Industry Canada punishment for interfering with Gotgeek’s operations could be severe.

“Industry Canada would come to us and identify that there is a situation… They revoke our broadcast licence is what would happen if we didn’t abide by the rules and regulations,”McKeand said.

The tower would be used to operate 4G and 4G LTE network bands. Once the new tower is constructed, the temporary tower will be removed.

Coun. Martin Ring was the first to break the debate in council, recommending that they allow the permit to move forward.

He said one of the tell-tales for him was that SaskTel’s tower would be operating at a height level below equipment operating on Gotgeek’s tower.

“I’m satisfied hearing what the specs are, that we’ve got industry standards that have to be dealt with. I’d be shocked if SaskTel would be willing to put their licensing on the line and cause the interference that is being projected here.”

In early May, council approved putting SaskTel’s application on hold while it waited for administration to gather more information about the Crown’s future projects.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by paNOW

Council approves new SaskTel telecom tower

What's Trending