Aviation Obstruction Lighting
In the United States, during the past 10 years, about 150,000 additional telecommunications towers have been built. As the telecommunications industry grows to meet the public need for cellular service, following Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations is even more imperative to maintain air safety.
The FCC requires towers over 200 feet in height to be lit and monitored. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 47 Part 17.48 states: The extinguishment or improper functioning of any top steady burning light or any flashing light, regardless of its position not corrected within 30 minutes shall be reported immediately to the FAA for a NOTAM to be issued. This means that if any top or mid-tier flashing lights are out, missing flashes, wrong intensity or incorrect flashes per minute, the issue must be reported to the FAA within 30 minutes.
ArgusON monitors more aviation obstruction lights than any other company in the U.S. The ArgusON National Operations Center (NOC) is the largest third party NOC and call center tower monitoring operation in the U.S. In a given year, the ArgusON NOC successfully handles:
- Over 150,000 calls a year in a 24/7 operation
- Monitoring and site management services for over 29,000 assets
- Over 1MM status alerts
- Issue over 35,000 NOTAM’s-all within 30 minutes of receipt of a tower status malfunction
Contact us at 1-800-821-5825
Documentation of ArgusON’s monitoring capabilities are found in the FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order WT Docket No. 05-326. A summary of the memorandum is outlined below.
On May 11, 2007 the FCC approved a waiver to the requirement of mandated quarterly lighting inspections (QLIs) as cited in section 17.47(b) of the Federal Code of Regulations. This waiver, awarded to American Tower Corporation, was granted based on using the Flash Technology’s Eagle™ Monitoring Platform in conjunction with Flash’s ArgusON™ Monitoring Center. The Eagle equipment and ArgusON processes provide a safe and reliable automatic monitoring system with tracking mechanisms and contingency plans.