How long will old

[u/thecelltowerguy]

legacy equipment remain on towers? I know because it costs a lot and is a lot of work, most of the old legacy equipment is left. How long will legacy equipment most likely remain on towers?

[u/Howden824]

Until someone needs the space for new equipment. It costs a lot to remove old stuff.

[u/OpponentUnnamed → u/Howden824]

Yep, removal does not just happen. It requires engineering time, hourly labor, records & drawings updates, and sometimes temporary shutdown of transmitters.

There is always money for that when space is constrained and new revenue-generating services are proposed & approved.

Then there is the issue of permitting & licensing. Sometimes installation of replacement equipment can be considered maintenance, but once you remove old stuff and discontinue licensing, you have to go thru the process again as if brand new.

Another issue is environmental requirements triggered by removal. I know of multiple cases where sites had old diesel generators with broken crankshafts, etc. Removing the generators would have required digging up the fuel tanks and dealing with any soil contamination, whereas licensing them every year cost maybe a hundred bucks.

[u/Opie1Smith]

Retire in place is generally the mentality.

[u/thekush]

Let’s talk about the batteries that have sat at those cell towers since DAY 1. 🤣

[u/msalerno1965 → u/thekush]

I decomm'd an old Avaya PBX recently in my datacenter. It had batteries in it. Telecom guy was like "there's batteries in there?".

25 years, no one had any idea it had a battery backup in it. They weren't swollen, which I found ... odd. Makes me wonder if they were vented. Oh, my god did I avoid a tragedy...

[u/Sparkycivic]

Something I learned recently: removal of equipment from a tower might trigger an engineering review which could be a costly endeavor especially when no benefit/payoff comes of it.

[u/satsuke]

Called retired in place.

And unless there’s a contract language about it’s removal or a need for wind loading purposes, it might never be removed on any reasonable timeline.

[u/Rich-Engineer2670]

A general answer -- so long as it works and we can depreciate it. Once either one of thos is done, it's a candidate for replacement. Most of the equipment is under a service contract witht he vendor so repairs really aren't our problem.

[u/Cloudy_Automation]

Patent licensing costs drive the need for older specifications. You won't find many, if any, 5G equipped vehicles because the licensing fee is based on the cost of the car, not the 5G modem. License fees on LTE is cheaper, so that's what the vehicles get. It doesn't matter that one of the user cases for 5G was self driving vehicles communicating directly with each other and the local traffic light.

[u/captainkirkthejerk]

Lots of good info here, but the simplest answer is: until the space is otherwise needed. 

[u/spaceman_neo]

How much Nextel stuff is still out there?

[u/orion3311]

Someone needs to sneak me a d4 to play with