Florida Wireless Company Passes Installation Milestone

Progress Telecom has completed its 300th wireless attachment of a cellular/PCS antenna array to a utility structure-in this case, for Verizon Wireless. The 300th attachment was placed on a Progress Energy utility structure in St. Petersburg, FL.Progress Telecom's attachments are in some 90 counties in Florida and the Carolinas, on structures owned by Progress Telecom and its sister utilities, Progress Energy Florida and Progress Energy Carolinas. All three companies are subsidiaries of Raleigh-based Progress Energy.

Progress Telecom's tower attachment activity has been among the most aggressive in the utility-owned telecom industry. "We are where wireless carriers want to be," said George Townsend, general manager of Progress Telecom's wireless division. "Utilizing existing utility structures for antenna attachments and collocating carriers make good economic and environmental sense.

Progress Telecom's wireless infrastructure division complements its core broadband business by providing wireless backhaul through a fully redundant fiber optic backbone. Progress Telecom picks-up wireless traffic originating from cell sites and aggregates it back to the Local Exchange Carrier's (LEC) office where it is connected to the wireless carrier's switch."

Posted to the site on 18th March 2003