Photo By Master Sgt. Patrick Malone | The tower used to mount the cell phone satellite dish that gave locals larger network...... read more read more
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By Spc. Jamie Avila
1st Brigade Combat Team,
82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs
IRAQ - When paratroopers from the 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division found out the citizens in the surrounding area of Convoy Supply Center were getting bad cell phone reception, they went to work to fix that problem.
"Each cell phone tower was getting overloaded with calls. None of the calls would go through and when they did go through it would be in the hours when everyone was sleeping. So what we did was, by utilizing a pre-existing ripper tower, at zero cost to the squadron, was ... get the cell phone company to come out here," said 1st Lt. John Kil-Sung Chung, the squadron engineer for 3rd Sqdn. 73rd Cav. Regt.
The entire project took only two weeks to complete and it didn't cost the unit anything to do it, according to Chung. The project could not have been completed without the help of 1st BCT legal team, signal section and civil-military operations section.
"It was the fastest project to be completed at no cost to the unit," said Chung.
The cell phone company agreed this would be a good project after surveying the site to calculate what kind of range the tower added to their network.
"Two engineers came, they surveyed the site and determined that by having the cell phone tower here, it would increase network connectivity between Shumali, us and Hamsa," said Chung.
According to the engineers who surveyed the site, the network coverage this tower can handle is anywhere from a five kilometer to 20 kilometer radius.
In addition to helping the locals get more phone calls this tower also brought the opportunity for more jobs in the area.
"This might have an economic impact as well. I'm hearing rumors that the local populace is thinking about opening cell phone shops in the area because of this tower. It is not something that I have confirmed, but it is something that people are telling me," said Chung.
Because communication and staying in touch with family is very important to the people in the area, this project is something that is appreciated by everyone who uses it, said Chung.
| Date Taken: | 04.05.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 04.05.2008 02:20 |
| Story ID: | 18102 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 335 |
| Downloads: | 287 |
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