{A0256555.

3 } 1




Radio Frequency Coverage Report


Proposed Atkinson Country Club
Facility


(Site S3122 85 Country Club Drive, Atkinson, NH)




April 28, 2014








{A0256555.3 } 2






TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Overview.......................................................................... 3
2. AT&Ts Proposed Facility ................................................ 3
3. Coverage and Capacity Objectives ................................. 4
4. Site Search and Selection Process ................................. 4
5. Coverage Plots ................................................................ 5
6. Summary ......................................................................... 6



ATTACHMENTS

Exhibit 1: Upcoming 1900 LTE Coverage

Exhibit 2: Upcoming-Proposed 1900 LTE Coverage
























{A0256555.3 } 3

1. Overview

New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC (AT&T) is applying to the Town of Atkinson Zoning
Board of Adjustment and Planning Board for approval to construct, operate and maintain a
wireless communications facility on the property located at 85 Country Club Drive, Atkinson,
New Hampshire (the Site). The Site is needed to address the significant coverage gaps that
exist in AT&Ts wireless communications network in Atkinson and Salem, NH. This report
addresses AT&Ts need for the proposed facility at the Site (the Facility) and confirms that it
is necessary to meet AT&Ts coverage objectives for this area.

Included in this report are a brief summary of the Facilitys objectives, an analysis of alternate
candidates considered, and radio frequency (RF) coverage plots showing the Facilitys
predicted propagation based on the antenna mounting height necessary to achieve AT&Ts
coverage goals.

2. AT&Ts Proposed Facility

As shown on the enclosed plans, AT&T proposes to construct, operate and maintain a Wireless
Communication Facility consisting principally of the following elements:
1


1) A 150 high, multi-carrier monopole tower within a 50 x 50 fenced equipment
compound;

2) Twelve (12) multi-band (700/850/1900/2100 MHz) panel antennas (four per sector)
on an antenna platform mounted at a centerline elevation of 146above ground
level on the monopole tower;

3) Twenty One (21) remote radio heads (RRHs) (seven per sector);

4) Four (4) surge arrestors pipe-mounted below the antenna platform;

5) Two (2) fiber-optic trunks, eight (8) DC power trunks and 3 RET lines running from
the antennas, down the monopole tower and across an ice bridge to AT&Ts radio
and electronic equipment housed in a prefabricated 11'-5" x 16' equipment shelter
located at the base of the monopole tower;

6) Up to three (3) GPS antennas;

7) A backup generator and related facilities on a concrete pad for back-up power in the
event of an emergency;


1
AT&T reserves the right to change the manufacturer, make, model, type and operating characteristics of the
antennas and any other equipment based on availability, price, performance and other considerations and in
accordance with all applicable laws.


{A0256555.3 } 4

8) Electric and telephone utilities and a meter bank within the fenced equipment
compound, together with a pad-mounted transformer outside of the fenced
compound;

9) A 8 high chain link fence with three strands of barbed wire (for a total height of 9);
and

10) A 12 wide access route to the fenced equipment compound, using an existing gravel
access drive with improvements where necessary.

The proposed monopole will accommodate the equipment of up to four (4) wireless carriers,
including AT&T. AT&T's proposed Facility is more fully depicted on the plans submitted with
the application.

3. AT&T's Coverage and Capacity Objectives

AT&T is the premier wireless company in the United States, with more than 107.9 million
subscribers who use the nations fastest 4G network. AT&T is dedicated to providing
customers with wireless technology designed to enrich their lives. AT&T continually raises its
performance to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TCA) to promote competition and
higher quality in American telecommunications services and to encourage the rapid
deployment of new telecommunications technologies.
2
Under the TCA and its progeny, a
federally licensed wireless communication carrier is to provide seamless coverage throughout
its service territory.
3


As a result, the wireless industry has seen a remarkable evolution of wireless devices such as
smart phones and tablets, and the advent of fourth generation technological developments in
commercial wireless communication networks. CTIA, the international association for the
wireless telecommunications industry, has summarized a variety of statistics on the wireless
industry in the United States that graphically illustrate these growth trends:
4


Statistic December 1997 December 2007 December 2012

2
City of Rancho Palos Verdes, Cal. v. Abrams, 544 U.S. 113, 115-116 (2005).

3
See, for example, 47 U.S.C. 615 (calling for seamless, ubiquitous, reliable wireless telecommunications
networks and enhanced wireless 9-1-1 service); Pub. L. No. 106-81, 2(a)(6), 113 Stat. 1286(a)(6 (calling for
construction and operation of seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable wireless telecommunications systems [to] promote
public safety and provide immediate and critical communications links among members of the public; emergency
medical service providers and emergency dispatch providers; public safety, fire service and law enforcement
officials; transportation officials, and hospital emergency and trauma care facilities); Pub. L. No. 106-81, 2(b),
113 Stat. 1286(b) (calling for encourag[ing] and facilitat[ing] the prompt deployment throughout the United States
of a seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable end-to-end infrastructure for communications, including wireless
communications, to meet the Nations public safety and other communications needs).

4
See U.S. Wireless Quick Facts (located at http://www.ctia.org/advocacy/research/index.cfm/aid/10323).


{A0256555.3 } 5

Statistic December 1997 December 2007 December 2012
Wireless
Subscriber
Connections
55.3 Million 255.4 Million 326.4 Million
Wireless
Penetration
5

19.8% 83.1% 102.2%
Wireless-Only
Households
(as a % of U.S.
Households)
N/A 15.8% 35.8%
Annualized
Minutes of Use
62.9 Billion 2.12 Trillion 2.30 Trillion
Monthly Text
Messages
1.2 Million 48.1 Billion 171.3 Billion
E-911 Calls Per
Day
55,000 260,000 >400,000
Cell Sites 51,600 213,299 301,779

As an FCC-licensed wireless communication carrier, AT&T must compete in the rapidly
evolving wireless marketplace and deliver state-of-the-art services demanded by consumers.
To do so, it must design, construct, optimize and operate its wireless communication network
(including its network in Atkinson and Salem) in a manner that delivers competitive and
reliable in-building coverage, addresses significant capacity problems in times of intense usage,
and ensures that network infrastructure is properly designed, sited, constructed and maintained
such that it can properly meet the needs created by increasing consumer demand for and use of
sophisticated wireless devices. Wireless customers routinely use their wireless devices in
buildings where the live, work and transact business and they demand a level of service equal to
or better than a landline from their wireless devices. AT&T must meet this demand in a
proactive rather than reactive manner. For this reason, AT&T is continuously monitoring and
optimizing network performance to resolve issues before they are experienced by the customer.
It is in this context that AT&T proposes the Facility at issue here.

AT&T seeks to provide seamless, high-quality, competitive wireless communication services
by installing the Facility to enhance the quality and reliability of its service in Atkinson and
Salem. AT&T provides digital cellular and PCS communications service using GSM (referred
to as 2G) and UMTS (also referred as 3G) technologies in the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz
frequency bands under licenses from the FCC. AT&T is also expanding and enhancing its
network throughout New Hampshire and specifically in Atkinson and Salem to provide high-
speed data services commonly referred to as long term evolution (LTE). LTE operates in
the 700, 850, 1900 and 2300 MHz frequencies under license from the FCC.

Wireless network coverage for voice and data services is provided by the placement of a
number of low power antenna sites within a given area. The sites are geographically spaced so
that the coverage from each site overlaps with its neighboring sites. When a connection is

5
Wireless penetration is defined as #of active units divided by the total U.S. and territorial population
(Puerto Rico, Guam and the USVI.

{A0256555.3 } 6

established on a certain site, the wireless device monitors the signal from the serving site, as
well as the signals of all of the adjacent sites. When the wireless device receives a stronger
signal from an adjacent site, it requests a transfer from the site it is currently using to the
stronger site. If there is seamless coverage provided by the carrier, the connection will transfer
without interruption. If there is a lack of appropriate signal strength at the transfer point, the
quality of the connection degrades and may ultimately be lost.

Further, wireless communications services are no longer limited to providing mobility only for
voice services. They have evolved into a wider range of advanced communications services to
include wide-area voice, data, internet, video, and broadband wireless data, among others, all in
a mobile environment. In order to offer these competitive services to more residents,
businesses and commuters traveling in and through the Targeted Coverage Area, AT&T needs
to improve the quality of its coverage by filling in as many of the existing gaps as possible with
signal strengths conducive to in-building and in-vehicle usage, and to provide the capacity and
bandwidth requirements to meet the increasing demand on the network.

AT&T has significant gaps in its existing voice and data coverage in the area to be served by
the proposed Facility. The proposed Facility will provide indoor and in-vehicle coverage in the
area and significantly improve the overall quality of AT&Ts network coverage in this area.

Specifically, AT&T has determined that there are significant gaps in AT&Ts coverage in the
vicinity of the site along substantial portions of Providence Hill Road, the Atkinson Country
Club and surrounding residential areas off Mocassin Path and Windmill Lane in Atkinson and
in residential and commercial areas along North Main Street and Shannon Road in Salem. The
proposed Facility will address these coverage gaps, referred to by AT&T collectively as the
Targeted Coverage Area.

4. Site Search and Selection Process/Candidate Evaluation

To find a site that provides acceptable service and fills the gaps in coverage, computer
modeling is used to define a search ring. The search ring is designed such that a site located
within the ring would have a high probability of completing coverage in the Targeted Coverage
Area (assuming that sufficient height is used).

Once the search ring is determined, AT&Ts real estate consultants search within the defined
area for existing buildings or tower structures of sufficient height that will fill coverage gaps
within the network. AT&T does not have an existing facility that is capable of providing the
required RF coverage to the Targeted Coverage Area. After a search of the area, AT&T
determined that (i) there are no existing tower or other tall structures on which to collocate to
provide coverage to the Targeted Coverage Area, (ii) AT&T cannot provide the necessary
coverage to the Targeted Coverage Area from siting a tower in the Town's Commercial-
Industrial District
6
and (ii) the proposed Facility at the Site is the most appropriate location
from which it can address the Targeted Coverage Area.

6
Section 800:3(c) of the Zoning Ordinance states that wireless communications facilities utilizing towers are a
permitted use in the Industrial Zone, but there is no Industrial only zoning district described in Section 500 of
the Zoning Ordinance.

{A0256555.3 } 7


5. Coverage Plots

To demonstrate why the proposed Facility is necessary, I have developed the following radio
frequency coverage maps attached to this report:

Exhibit 1, entitled Upcoming 1900 LTE Coverage depicts AT&Ts LTE coverage
from existing AT&Ts sites that have been or will be upgraded with 1900 LTE service
in and around the Targeted Coverage Area (without the proposed facility).

Exhibit 2, entitled Upcoming-Proposed 1900 LTE Coverage depicts AT&Ts LTE
coverage from existing AT&Ts sites that have been or will be upgraded with 1900 LTE
service in and around the Targeted Coverage Area (the same as Exhibit 1) plus AT&Ts
1900 LTE coverage from the proposed Facility to be installed at the Site.

These coverage maps were generated using Forsk Atoll, an RF Propagation computer modeling
program. The software takes into account the geographical features of an area, antenna models,
antenna heights and RF transmitting power. The green dots depict AT&Ts existing wireless
facility locations, and the orange dot shows the location of the proposed tower. The map
showing coverage without the proposed Facility indicates that AT&T cannot achieve its
coverage objective with currently existing sites that have or will be upgraded with LTE service.
Accordingly, the proposed Facility at the Site is necessary to fill this significant gap in AT&Ts
wireless network coverage in and around the Targeted Coverage Area.

6. Summary

The Site is well suited to provide the coverage and capacity requirements needed for this area in
Atkinson and Salem, New Hampshire. The location and the Facility will achieve an optimal
balance between meeting coverage objectives and minimizing the aesthetic impact to the
community while complying with the Atkinson Zoning Ordinance to the extent feasible. The
Facility will comply with all applicable FCC regulations regarding RF emissions and other
applicable regulations. The proposed Facility site is feasible and appropriate, and will improve
wireless service in the Targeted Coverage Area of Atkinson and Salem and the surrounding
vicinity.

I certify to the best of my knowledge that the statements in this report are true and accurate.



April 28, 2014
Ernesto Chua, RF Engineer Date
AT&T Mobility


{A0256555.3 } 8



U
p
c
o
m
i
n
g

1
9
0
0

L
T
E

C
o
v
e
r
a
g
e


{A0256555.3 } 9


U
p
c
o
m
i
n
g
-
P
r
o
p
o
s
e
d

1
9
0
0

L
T
E

C
o
v
e
r
a
g
e