The State of Michigan is Open to Tower Development

The State of Michigan manages an abundance of land, ringing in around 4.6 million acres, and carefully supervises its use to provide a balance between recreation, conservation and, most recently, telecommunications tower development. Pyramid Network Services, LLC, a privately held and nationwide telecommunications site development company, has been selected to provide cell tower development and colocation management for the portfolio of 270 existing state-owned towers, buildings, and properties, in addition to managing new tower builds on state-owned land.

“We work with current tenants to execute the modifications they want to make, whether it is an equipment swap or new equipment install,” Chris Piatt, Pyramid’s Program Manager-Colocation, told Inside Towers. “While Pyramid’s goal is to fully utilize existing towers in order to preserve asset value for the state’s constituents, we also have the exclusive right to build and develop new towers on any state-owned property.”

Established in 1996, Pyramid provides project management, site construction, site acquisition, colocation, program development and full turnkey site solution services to a broad range of telecommunications customers. The company’s client portfolio includes government and state agencies, commercial carriers, tower companies, security companies, educational institutions, municipalities, individual landowners, and other organizations.

Working with the State of Michigan gives Pyramid access to land and towers operated by the state’s Department of Transportation, Department of Natural Resources, and Michigan’s Public Safety Communications System. These areas include rural parts of Michigan, where broadband communications can be spotty or nonexistent.

“By developing towers in both rural and suburban areas, we will assist in the government’s goal to establish better broadband for rural communities, whether it is mobile coverage for carriers, or fixed wireless access for ISPs,” Piatt said. “There are a lot of great outdoor activities in Michigan and we will ensure that the State’s citizens and visitors can enjoy them with the coverage they need,” explains Piatt. That coverage is a safety imperative, particularly for those who hike or explore in isolated areas.

Pyramid is taking a broad approach to marketing the state’s land and towers, not only advertising directly to the carriers, but also seeking out rural broadband providers and education-based providers. “In addition to traditional commercial wireless clients, we’re also working with cities and counties who may need these towers for emergency services systems,” Piatt said. “While we have the exclusive right to build towers on the properties, we are also open to collaborating with tower companies that need to develop towers. We are trying to bring in everybody.”

The towers in the state’s portfolio are tall because they were built to provide emergency services communications to large areas. Extensive GIS maps have been created of the available area, which show both existing and potential tower sites.

“With more than 140 towers exceeding 400’ in height, potential tenants have a broad range of RAD centers to choose from for colocation,” Piatt said. “You may visit our website at www.stateofmichigantowers.com or simply request a map, provide us with your coverage goals, and we will return to you several options to meet your objectives.”

Pyramid has completed work on over 100,000 wireless sites nationwide and has created a project management program with the state of Michigan based on those experiences. Pyramid tracks the process end-to-end using a unique internal system to streamline the experience for the applicants and the state. This also creates transparency for tenants renting tower space and carriers seeking to build towers.

“Pyramid’s project management tools provide an efficient and reliable process, allowing the applicant to get on the tower quickly,” Piatt said. “We can tell clients what to expect upfront regarding costs and timelines. The same cannot necessarily be said for the process of working with individual landlords, which can be less predictable,” says Piatt.

“It is imperative to us to be able to meet our on-air goals, whether it’s for a carrier or a private client trying to provide broadband by a certain date. We want to be flexible and increase the speed-to-market with this program.”

In the end, it’s the location of these lands that carriers, governments, and even private enterprises will find enticing. The total land mass that Pyramid markets is 7,225 square miles, or a total of 4.6 million acres. “We have a good portfolio of land that we leverage for covering areas that people want to utilize, especially when you add in those acres between the areas of forest lands, and the Department of Transportation land, which runs along the highways that carriers are very interested in covering,” Piatt said.

For more information, please visit www.stateofmichigantowers.com, or email Pyramid’s Program Manager, Chris Piatt.