CENTEL Cellular Sprint Cellular 360° Communications Alltel Communications

License(s)

Comments

In Virginia, North Carolina and parts of Mississippi and Alabama, Alltel is just the latest owner of some of the oldest cellular networks in those regions. In Virginia much of the state was originally Sprint Cellular then 360° Communications with Richmond having once been a CellularONE market and CENTEL Cellular doing the original Norfolk buildout. In other markets Alltel has acquired networks from rival wireline and wireless carriers such as as CenturyTel's Century Cellunet (Celutel) and GTE Mobilnet of Florida.

Misc: Alltel is short for Allied Telephone

Antenna

The standardized antenna configuration in Virginia consists of 12 Andrew DB844 antenna mounted in a 4 x 3 configuration with even spacing (Fig. 1-1). There is also a lesser used 3 x 3 configuration as well (Fig. 1-2). Caution is warrented as Nextel is very fond of deploying the DB844 in a 4 x 4 configuration in the same markets as Alltel. Another commonly used antenna configuration utilizes Andrew DB876 paddle antenna (Fig. 1-3). The DB876 paddle antenna are highly directional and very difficult to pull readings from. In the Charlottesville market the the DB876 paddle antenna is often paired with another longer Andrew Decibel style antenna (Fig. 1-4). Newer sites in the Norfolk network are now using the DB846 antenna which an extremely long version of the DB844. The DB846 are usually installed in a 2 x 3 configuration (Fig. 1-5). As with the DB844 4 x 3 configuration Nextel has also taken a strong liking to this antenna configuration but deploys the DB846 in a 4 x 3 configuration. In Richmond, Alltel still has a large number of sites that utilize antenna from Sinclair Communications. These antenna look like a white wedge with a mesh reflector backing and come in short (SE414-A) and long versions (SE419-A) (Fig. 1-6). Alltel sites in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region have a multi-vendor 3 x 3 antenna configuration. The middle antenna is an EMS Wireless antenna and mounted higher than the other two antenna (Fig. 1-7). The EMS Wireless antenna most like support Alltel CDMA customers while the prexisting antenna are for legacy Cellunet TDMA customers.

Figure 1-1: Andrew Decibel DB844 4x3

Figure 1-4: Andrew Decibel DB876 w/DB 1x3

Additionally, Alltel has been moderately aggressive in secotrizing most of their omnidirectional sites. This sectorization normally takes two disntinctive forms depending on what state the site is in. In North Carolina the sectorized antenna are generally placed below the omnidirectional array (Fig. 1-8) while in Virginia they are normally installed at the same place as the omnidirectional antenna. Furthermore in Virginia, the downward pointing omnis are normally removed from service. This leaves a group of sectorized antenna with two upward pointing omnidirectional antenna (a classic configuration in the Norfolk market) (Fig. 1-9). The sectorized antenna are provided by Andrew. Futhermore, Alltel still has many omnidirectional sites which consist of two antenna pointing upward and two pointing downward in a traditional TX/RX H type configuration (Fig. 1-10).

Figure 1-8: Omni/Sector (NC)

Base station(s)

Most sites use very large shelters with a light brown exposed aggregate covering (Fig. 2-1). Newer, digital only sites (which are all sites post-2002 sites now) use a smaller shelter made by Cellxion (Fig. 2-2). Sites where Alltel holds PCS licenses or where compound space is at a premium make use of dual Motorola SuperCell 4812ET cabinets (Fig. 2-3). Like Sprint PCS one cabinet houses the site electronics and the other is loaded with car batteries to provide between 8 and 24 hours of run time in the event of a utility power failure.

Figure 2-2: CellXion shelter

Figure 2-3: Motorola SuperCell 4812ET

Signage

Alltel was very good about marking their sites with plastic site id signs that contained a cell number, regulatory information and an emergency contact number (Fig. 3-1). However, for some reason Alltel stoped this practice and has only sporadically gone back to marking their sites with a metal version of the old site id sign (Fig. 3-2). Most sites, where required, that are or were owned by Alltel also have a plastic FCC ASR number sign (Fig. 3-3). Newer Alltel sites are mostly colocated on other structures so the use of this sign has also become rare. Sites in the Norfolk market actually have black on white stickers on the equipment shelter door that list the site's cell number, name, address as well as a local telephone number. For some reason the last four digits of the telephone number have been obscured. This was probably the telephone number for the out of band management device (a modem) used to monitor and manage the site. A few sites missing the door sticker sign have cell name labels located near the shelter door knob. Former Century Cellunet sites in Mississippi usually have a small metal square site id sign with FCC regulatory information and cell site information (Fig. 3-4). Former GTE Mobilnet sites in Floridia have a generic sticker affixed to the door that lists a cell sites contact information and FCC callsign information (Fig. 3-5).

Figure 3-1: Plastic Site ID sign

Figure 3-2: Metal Site ID sign

Figure 3-3: FCC ASR sign