ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MOUNT VERNON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A cellular telephone company will construct a 100-foot relay tower, disguised as a white fir tree, in a heavily wooded area on George Washington's estate.
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which owns the 500-acre estate, insisted on the camouflage job before agreeing to lease the tower space to Cellular One.
``As far we know, the pole will not be visible from any public road,'' said Mike Quinn, the association's deputy director for programs.
``But this is a site of such national importance that we wanted to demonstrate we are taking extreme care when it comes to anything that might affect the aesthetics and the views.''
Mount Vernon's ``treepole,'' with plastic and rubber for needles and bark, is scheduled to be built this year. Cellular One is leasing the tower space for $10,000 a year and will donate a new $75,000 communication system to Mount Vernon.
Wireless phone companies, facing a revolt over their proliferating towers, have disguised antennas as silos, chimneys and lighthouses. The companies have built 17,000 antennas since 1983, and another 100,000 are expected in the next nine years because of increased competition.
The competition is being fueled by a new generation of wireless technology called personal communication service, which combines a phone, voice mail and a pager in one slim case. Systems will be built this year in every major city in the country.
In recent auctions, 107 companies spent $18 billion on personal communication service licenses. Now the firms are scrambling to build the systems, so they can begin recovering money and locking in customers.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB