...why don't one of you folk living out in the country in the USA give Verizon a shout through their website and get your own cell-phone tower? If no string-pulling is required...

This is such a non story. He's the presidential nomination for the GOP and as such is offered Secret Service detail (as is the nominee from the democrats). If he is running his campaign or spending a lot of time in an area then it makes very good sense for the wireless networks to pop some kit nearby. They have only put temporary kit in place and will no doubt rip it down in mid November when they notice that nobody is using it any more apart from the McCains.

Go make up some real news (with Playmobile and stuff).

There's probably a reasonable amount of direct Moolah in it as well, in terms of revenue from dozens of people milling around 24/7, continuously on their cellphones. Operators maintain calendars of upcoming 'events', deduce their likely impact on cell load - and then wheel in a temporary site if they can/it's economically viable, to try and capture as much traffic as they can, and avoid other normal users on the area from experiencing problems by the volume of abnormal traffic.

I doubt a 'party' the size of McCain's entourage would warrant much attention in normal circumstances, but, as you say, he's not their average customer.

John McCain is a gimpy handed twat. The only thing he's ever done is suck at war and rip people off.

I called Verizon and asked for one of those portable cells to be brought over to my place. They said they didn't do that for anyone. When I asked about the McCain issue they said I must be mistaken and my information was coming from unreliable sources.

I agree -- it's a non-story.

Both providers did exactly the same thing a couple of years ago for the students at the university where I teach. They had more students show up one fall, with phones from their home areas, than they had counted on. They put up temporary towers until they could get the new permanent ones up and running.

It's a little thing called customer service. Amazingly, some companies still attempt to practice it.

Why, when they generate as much calls as the McCain ranch is going to in the next three weeks, they'll be welcome...

Apparently, Verizon also has a contract with the Secret Service stating they must provide anything the Secret Service asks, for free (from the NYTimes article on this). AT&T followed suit on their own, saying it would be torn down after the campaign.

I guess Obama will be the winner then... not that it makes much of a difference as in IMHO they both are working for the same masters anyway...

You mean McCain took donations from US corporations? Terrible! So much worse than if he'd taken millions in anonymous foreign donations that would break US election laws.... like Obama has. Just imagine if McCain had used his position to divert public funds to those same corporations. What, he didn't? So it's not like Obama and ACORN then? Well, I suppose we can move on to the next non-story then.

Yeah but, no but.

Like most politicians on the campaign trail, not much time is spent at home. The campaign (and it's team) is mobile - I believe that prat Palin has spent one day in Alaska since she was announced as his wheelchair pusher^H^H^H^H^H running mate. I don't get the need for dedicated a mobile base station for McCain's ranch besides PR for the companies involved; there won't be that many people at McCain's place (or Obama's).

They routinely put up temporary phone masts outside the conference centre in Brighton for the week of the political party conferences.

Now if I could just get Vodafone to sprout another mast half a mile from me to bait the traffic that's destroying my 3G "broadband" experience I'd be thrilled... (20kbps upload, 3500ms ping, eves)

...someone connects McCain's rumored skin cancer with exposure to microwave radiation.

Mine's the one with TELECOM IMMUNITY on the back. Makes me cough too.

Verizon in a dead zone? Say it aint so.

Can you hear me now? Hello? Hello? Can you hear me now? Damn. . .

Take your pick. As for "perks", the secret service guards all ex-presidents, and therefore needs to set up shop for the Clintons in New York. They are charged "rent" on the out (back) house in the estate. Simple math turns out this "rent" is exactly the mortgage payment for the whole estate. Ain't politics grand!

Can I have secret service coverage as well. It would be nice to have bullies follow me and shove people out of the way.

Now if AT&T (modem test command) would have decent coverage here at home....

Mike Pratt's photo doesn't really do a good job to explain what COWs look like. I have a, er, herd of high quality, high resolution COW photos at http://www.CellularPCS.com/gallery/ You'll see a gallery section devoted to this portable cell sites.

Jonathan L. Kramer, Esq.

Kramer Telecom Law Firm, PC

Los Angeles, California

Sedona, AZ, is probably the most nutty area of the States. There's some flat areas up in the mountains where rocks slide around which has attracted every UFO nut who hasn't already drunk the kool-aid.

My motel had tons of local info liek most hotels, but every flier was for a mad hippy shit version. Vet?, sure but in Sedona the vets offer to fix your mutt with crystals!

Put another cell mast there and the locals are gonna have a conspiracy theory about it before you know it.

... Sounds like John McCain taking a Campaign contribution call.

Hat, Coat, door.

You really need to find out more about ACORN before you make that kind of assumption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AloeLTgO88w

Please stop splitting your infinitives.

English isn't Latin - we are allowed to split infinitives in English so long as it doesn't alter the intended meaning of the sentence or turn it into gobbledegook.

But Verizon spokesman Nelson said it has no plans to build the permanent cell site and instead has installed a temporary cell site on wheels following a request in May from the Secret Service. ‘We have no plans to build a permanent cell site on this property, but are keeping the permit active as a prudent business planning measure, in the event the Secret Service's needs change over time,’ Nelson said."

Your version

The news comes from the Washington Post, which established that Cindy McCain, the senator's wife, offered some land on the ranch to Verizon early last year in the hope that it would put a cell there. Verizon got pretty far with that request, but ended up deciding the planning requirements were too onerous, and the return on investment too nebulous.

But come June the operator was wheeling in a temporary base station to provide coverage, apparently responding to a request from the security services.

You never mentioned the 'security services' was not McCain's personal security, but in reality it was the Secret Service who requested it. This in no way reflects badly on McCain or his campaign but our own government's security. I am sure if it was Obama this would have been the same request from the Secret Services and it would not been written about.

>"Verizon and AT&T have both located temporary cell sites near presidential-candidate John McCain's Arizona ranch, to better connect the good Senator, his supporters and security staff"

... to the NSA's nearest interception point.

There, FTFY. Now pass me my AFDB!

Actually, I know more about ACORN through a little light web reading than the people in the video. But hey, why not the let the liberals hoist their own Messiah on his own petard! Here's what Wikileaks has to say about Obama, ACORN, and his dodgy denials:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Obama_and_ACORN

More mainstream? How about Yahoo! News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20080930/bs_ibd_ibd/20080930issues

Even your own YouTube clip acknowledges that ACORN are registering dead people as voters, and with many states using pre-election voting this means ACORN are registering dead people and then casting a vote in their name! No prizes for guessing which way the dead are voting! Here's just one case the FBI are investigating:

http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel07/identitytheft010507.htm

But the really funny bit is that ACORN are now suspected of using fraudulent Democrat registrations to ensure Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Democrat nominations. Obama better pray the FBI don't present their findings before election day.

In relation to the comment about photos of transportable base stations, there are other examples on my website (www.prattfamily.demon.co.uk/mikep/gsmnet.html).

This photo has four different transportables in the same picture:

http://www.prattfamily.demon.co.uk/mikep/jpegs/trans2.JPG

A cellsite planner for one of the UK networks told me a few years ago that they had put in a base station near Chequers for the PM at the time (Tony Blair).

Best wishes

Mike P