The telecommunication industry is highly dependent on real physical installations and devices that form a part of what is commonly called, in short, as telecom infrastructure. To carry voice and data across large expanses of land, sea and space, there are innumerable components involved, a great deal of which is installed offsite at a remote location.
Guyed towers
Telecom towers play an important role in housing transmission equipment at a requisite height to ensure line of sight and distortion-free transmission and reception. Guyed towers are among the simplest constructions used to place telecom transmission equipment at good elevated levels.
Construction of Guyed towers
As the name implies, Guyed towers are made to stand with the support of guyes, which are strong steel wire rope cables anchored to the ground. A typical guyed tower is a vertical latticed tower construction made up of usually four legs of steel tubes. These are held together by bolting and welded joints with triangular elements between each of the four tubes that form the tower.
The tower is installed over a very well-set concrete foundation to ensure that it stands tall against the forces of nature around it. However, because of its 90 degree vertical construction, and slim profile, the tower may need more support to make it stand firmly. This is where the Guyes come into play. These steel cables placed 120 degrees apart, and firmly anchored to the ground, hold the tower perfectly erect.
Cost and other considerations for Guyed towers
As compared to other types of towers and masts, guyed towers involve lesser construction cost due to lower materials needed. It is far lighter than other constructions such as latticed towers. However, guyed towers require larger surface area as compared to latticed constructions because the guyed cables spread much farther to hold the tower still. This requires a larger area to be owned or leased by the telecom firm.
Load bearing
While guyed towers can bear good amount of wind loads, their payload capacity is far less as compared to latticed towers. For this reason, guyed towers are usually preferred when it comes to hoisting a low weight and lower range RF antenna. However, when it comes to bearing heavier antenna like long range microwave transmitters, other types of telecom towers are preferred.
There are many considerations that go while designing and commissioning a guyed telecom tower, which includes technical as well as commercial parameters. It proves highly economical for a telecom service provider to entrust a turnkey solution provider to handle all aspects of site selection, design and commissioning of telecom towers, including guyed towers.
Comments