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McCain ranch got cell towers from Verizon, AT&T
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Want better cell coverage? Forget femtocells, just run for president and have your wife's staff ask nicely. That, according to the Washington Post, is all it took for Cindy McCain, wife of GOP candidate John McCain, to get a pair of free portable wireless towers delivered to her remote 15-acre ranch in Hidden Valley, Ariz.
The candidate's wife sought out better service just as her husband was beginning his campaign in early 2007 and by the time the campaign was up and running this summer, so was wireless service from Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
According to the Post, Verizon delivered a portable tower, generally used to restore service when cells are knocked out by emergencies, in June, responding to an online request from Cindy McCain's staff. In July AT&T brought in its own free portable tower to match Verizon's offer, proving to federal overseers like McCain, who's a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, that there really is competition among the wireless providers.
For more:
- see this article
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Comments
Posted by Anonymous | October 16, 2008 - 2:41pm
You've got to be kidding. I'm surprised you're going for so much drama, and I'm not sure what the point is. I'm sure both operators saw a business case and easy site access - senate connections aside. What would be more interesting would be to see how much traffic is being carried out there. And notice, whoever really arranged for those towers astutely realized their chances of winning a 700 MHz or AWS license, and getting their own network up in time, were slim.
Posted by Anonymous | October 16, 2008 - 9:58pm
A business case for this? Easy site access? You obviously didn't read the article. It says that the carrier admitted that there was no business case for a tower there.
Posted by Anonymous | October 17, 2008 - 4:35pm
She got "a pair of free portable wireless towers delivered to her remote 15-acre ranch". Ok, so?! This is worded as if she was supposed to pay for the towers???!!??!! Has anyone ever paid to have a carrier build a tower, NO!!!
What is the point of this article? Is it supposed to "slam" McCain's campaign because they requested wireless coverage???
I am VERY DISSAPPOINTED to have found an article written in such a poor manner on this website.
Posted by Anonymous | October 22, 2008 - 10:53am
This shows that when republicans aren't on the attack, they sure get defensive!
Posted by Anonymous | November 1, 2008 - 4:09pm
Blah blah blah, this guys full of crap,
I get crappy service from vzw, and i bet they wont take a rolling tower to my house??
that guy should just got diee, old a**
Posted by Anonymous | November 15, 2008 - 12:39am
It has nothing to do with running for president. Verizon and AT&T are very competative. I had AT&T until 3 months ago, now I have Verizon and I don't get good service at my house. Verizon has gone far beyond what any other cell company ever has to try and fix this issue. They even offered to let me out of my 2 year contract, and I'm just a country girl that's not running for any type of polictical anything. But I am very proud to be a republican. You all have a blessed day! Cali
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