AT&T Erects Cellphone Tower on Bay Ridge Road

AT&T is building a 130-foot cellphone tower behind the Annapolis Neck Fire Station on Bay Ridge Road that could be operational within a month, said WesTower Communications' Mike Butler who is the construction manager on site.

"It's probably going to be probably within a month to six months tops," Butler said. "It all depends on the integration schedule."

The new tower has to be able to talk to other area towers in order to ensure the continuity of service for callers.

"It's 4G LTE also," Butler said. "So it's going to be fiber, which means it will be faster."

Anne Arundel County leased the property behind the fire station to AT&T, and it will be collecting monthly rent for the space.

Butler said concerns and complaints about the aesthetics of the pole, made this installation a high profile job.

"Most of the time the branches start up at the top third of the pole, but this one here the branches are going to start much lower," Butler said. "This one here is going to have a lot more foliage on it to where it will be very unnoticeable other than it's a pine tree."

The "limbs" for the faux tree should be going up Wednesday and Thursday, once painting is completed on the antennas.

The tower is setup to have up to four carriers on the tower, but there are no plans for anyone but AT&T at the moment.

"That's usually how it goes. Someone will find a location and put in a cellphone tower," Butler said. "Then the other cellphone companies pick up on it."