Mobile connectivity is something we take for granted in 2026, but the job of keeping the networks running is a sizeable and difficult one. For those on the front line, it can have dangerous - sometimes deadly - consequences.
In issue #61 of DCD>Magazine, out now, we speak to the cell tower climbers who maintain towers across the US. We hear a series of hair-raising stories from these brave engineers, who spill the beans about the dangers they face and the pressures they are under.
The job is one of the most perilous in the world, with climbers regularly sustaining life-changing injuries or even suffering fatal accidents. Wireless construction publication Wireless Estimator has been tracking fatalities since 2003, and has recorded 176 deaths in that time. Separate research from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union revealed 65.3 percent of respondents had been on a site where someone was injured.
While this risk is, to an extent, part of the job, many argue that not enough is being done to protect these workers, and that operating conditions must improve to ensure that better safeguards are put in place. But the silence from tower companies on this issue, at least those that DCD tried to contact for this feature, was deafening.
