To Whom It May Concern, Verizon Wireless is proposing a new tower called Hulk within Chaska at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN 55318. The proposed new tower will provide additional capacity to the Verizon Network currently operating in Chaska. Verizon Wireless s Radio Frequency Engineering team has selected the proposed location after a careful study of existing and future network capacity needs and consideration of other alternate locations. Currently, Verizon Wireless provides wireless service coverage in and around the area of the proposed site. However, with increasing capabilities of cellular devices including smart phones, tablets, and WiFi hotspots wireless networks are under constant pressure to provide faster data speeds for more devices and larger amounts of data. As a result, Verizon Wireless is working to increase wireless network capacity nationally within the existing network through capacity sites like the site being proposed herein. The proposed site at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN 55318 is an example of Verizon Wireless efforts to increase capacity and ensure that our network remains reliable even with increased data usage by our customers. Specifically, at the intersection of MN-41& Pioneer Trail there is heavy usage because of the commercial shopping and restaurant area in this intersection To further explain, while Verizon Wireless currently provides reliable voice and data service in this area, data usage is increasing exponentially due to services like wireless internet, mobile email and video streaming. Businesses are also increasingly dependent on our data network for mobile internet and enterprise applications. In addition, Verizon Wireless will soon be upgrading its voice service, which will put even more demand on the existing data network. As a result, Verizon Wireless must make critical upgrades to its network in this area to maintain reliable data service for its customers who live and work there, many of whom rely exclusively on wireless communications services and do not have landline phone service. Most critically, many local and state public safety and emergency service providers rely on our network every day to ensure the safety of your community. Verizon Wireless is committed to best-in-class network reliability for all of these customers, and the proposed project at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN 55318 will allow Verizon to maintain this commitment. Your approval of this project will enable Verizon Wireless to continue to maintain the best, most reliable wireless service in your area. The proposed upgrade to our network in this area will provide businesses and residential customers with the reliable wireless service on which they have come to rely, and will ensure that emergency service and public safety customers can continue to ensure public safety for all of Chaska s citizens and visitors. Sincerely, Nithya Jaipuriyar Verizon Wireless RF Engineer Email: Nithyakalyani.Jaipuriyar@vzw.com Mobile: 612-720-9030 1
RF Coverage Maps for Proposed Site at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN The following maps demonstrate the need for a new site at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN 55318. The measurements considered in this study will be the Coverage and the Best Server Coverage Distribution - a map showing the geographic areas served by a site s sector. A new site such as the one proposed in this document will be designed with the goal of improving coverage in an area, especially in target areas such as neighborhoods, shopping areas or busy highways. Another design goal for a new site is to balance the load between the existing sites in the area and the proposed site. This way if a proposed site experiences a large amount of traffic, that traffic will be divided among existing and proposed sites resulting in an increased speed and connection reliability for customers. First case: Coverage In general, at analysis we can identify three levels of coverage: Good (Red) at this level customers will be able to establish and maintain reliable connections both indoors and outdoors; Fair (Yellow) at this level customers will be able to establish a reliable connection outdoors but performance will most probably suffer indoors. Reliable connections will still be possible in vehicle; Poor (Green) at this level, connections can only be established outdoors. Reliable connections indoors or in vehicle are highly unlikely. If the coverage is below poor level, it is generally considered that the signal is non-existing, meaning that no reliable connection will likely be possible. The following maps show the existing and expected coverage in the area surrounding the proposed site. 2
Figure 1. Existing Coverage (Without the Simulated Effect of the Proposed Site) The above map shows the existing coverage in the area surrounding the proposed site Hulk. Areas with Good coverage levels are shown in red; areas with Fair coverage are shown in yellow, and areas with Poor coverage levels are shown in green. Areas shown with no color have a coverage level below Poor which is considered to be unreliable signal. The expected coverage impact of the proposed site is not simulated in this case. As can be seen in the above coverage map, the area surrounding the proposed site, Hulk has mostly Poor coverage with several pockets of below Poor level of coverage. Fair to Poor coverage will experience connection reliability issues especially for customers in indoor locations or in vehicles. 3
Figure 2. Expected Coverage (With the Simulated Effect of the Proposed Site) The above map shows the existing coverage in the area surrounding the proposed site Hulk. Areas with Good coverage levels are shown in red; areas with Fair coverage are shown in yellow, and areas with Poor coverage levels are shown in green. Areas shown with no color have a coverage level below Poor which is considered to be unreliable signal. The expected coverage impact of the proposed site is simulated in this case. As can be seen in the above map, the coverage with the proposed site, Hulk, is expected to be significantly improved. To be noted that the areas that are currently being served at below poor coverage are expected to be eliminated at the intersection of MN-41& Pioneer Trail with commercial shopping and restaurants. 4
Second Case: Best Server Distribution The following maps will show the server coverage distribution with and without a new site at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN 55318. At Verizon, a lot of effort is being placed to ensure that all sites in our network are balanced in terms of the amount of traffic they are managing. In other words, if a site is experiencing too much traffic, a new site would be needed to offload a portion of that traffic. The new site would make it possible to deliver a better network experience to our customers and increased speeds in the area that is currently being served by the existing overloading site. This is especially true in the commercial area surrounding the intersection of MN-41& Pioneer Trail. A new build site would help offload the high amount of traffic served by the existing sites located NE (Hazeltine) and SE (Jonathan) of Hulk, which will translate into increased speeds for our customers. To gauge the amount of traffic that will be offloaded by a new site, the Best Server Coverage Distribution is analyzed. The Best Server Coverage Distribution is a measure used to display the different sectors of a site and identify the geographical areas served by those sectors. In this type of simulation, several colors will be present on the map, each color identifying a site, and more specifically, identifying a sector of a site, that is serving in a geographical area. The identified sector has the best coverage level in that area. The following two maps display the existing and expected Best Server Coverage Distribution. 5
Figure 3. Existing Coverage (Without the Simulated Effect of the Proposed Site) The above map shows the existing best server coverage distribution of the area surrounding the proposed site (Hulk). The expected effect of the proposed site is not simulated in this case. Each color on the map represents the area currently being served by individual sectors of existing sites. For example, if we consider the existing site (Jonathan) located SE of Hulk, in blue we can identify the area covered by the north-facing sector of the site. In purple we can identify the area covered by the site s southeast-facing sector. Similarly, dark blue identifies the area served by the site s southwest-facing sector. In the above map we can see that the north-facing sector (displayed in blue) of the existing Verizon site (Jonathan) and southwest-facing sector of the existing Verizon site (Hazeltine) are currently covering the heavy usage commercial shopping and restaurant area at the intersection of MN-41 and Pioneer Trail. Analysis has shown that these sectors need an additional site to balance the traffic, thus the need for the proposed new site. 6
Figure 4. Existing Coverage (Including the Simulated Effect of the Proposed Site) The above map shows the existing best server coverage distribution of the area surrounding the proposed site (Hulk). The expected effect of the proposed site is simulated in this case. Each color on the map represents the area currently being served by individual sectors of existing sites. For example, if we consider the existing site (Jonathan) located SE of Hulk, blue we can identify the area covered by the north-facing sector of the site. In purple we can identify the area covered by the site s southeast-facing sector. Similarly, dark blue identifies the area served by the site s southwest-facing sector. As can be seen in the above map, the north-facing and south-facing sectors of the proposed site (Hulk) would take over the traffic in the commercial shopping and restaurant area near the intersection of MN-41 and Pioneer Trail that is currently being served by the existing Verizon sites (Jonathan and Hazeltine). This reduction in the amount of traffic served by the existing sites (Jonathan and Hazeltine) translates into an enhanced user network experience and increased speeds near the intersection of MN-41 and Pioneer Trail especially for users indoors. 7
Analysis of Alternate Locations The location of a capacity site such as the one proposed herein is very important and chosen only after careful analysis of both existing and future predicted capacity demands. Several alternatives in the area are considered before identifying a specific location that would meet the radio frequency engineering objectives. There was only one alternate location to be considered in this case, which is the Chaska Water tank. The locations of the existing Verizon towers can be identified in the map below in red (Jonathan & Hazeltine). Figure 5. Alternate Location Analysis of current and future traffic demands have identified that the existing Verizon Wireless sites (Jonathan & Hazeltine) will exhaust its capacity in the very near future. This site 8
is providing coverage to an extended geographical area comprised of residential and commercial businesses around the intersection of MN-41 and Pioneer Trail in Chaska (as can be seen in Figure 3). Because of the high traffic demand in this area, the existing Verizon Wireless sites near this area are reaching its capacity limitations and, thus, a new site is needed in order to balance some of the existing site s traffic with the new proposed site. By offloading a portion of that traffic, an increased network experience and increased speeds can be provided to our customers in this area. The proposed location at Peavey Circle Chaska, MN 55318 is more centrally located to our existing sites in the area and thus will provide a better load balance and capacity distribution than the alternative Chaska Water tank. As can be seen in Figure 5, the existing Chaska Water tank is located less than one mile from an existing Verizon Wireless site (Hazeltine). These two locations would be so close and exposed to each other that they would overwhelm devices with multiple signal sources causing degraded performance. For this reason the Chaska water tank would not meet the Radio Frequency Engineering objectives for this area and would not provide as much offload to the existing Verizon Wireless Tower s exhausting sector. It has been identified as a non-optimal candidate for this area s coverage and capacity objectives. 9