PITTSBURGH - AT&T has sued the City of New Castle and its city council for denying an 80-foot tower at a local school that it says would improve reliability and signal.
AT&T’s case against the city and the city council was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on March 13.
The plaintiff pointed out a section in New Castle where its customers can’t get service. The cell phone company filed an application for permission to build a wireless facility at George Washington Intermediate School, 101 East Euclid Avenue, to help boost its signal.
Interestingly enough, AT&T’s competitors Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint already have facilities at the school. Still, the city council denied the application, stating that the facility would create an adverse impact, sparking AT&T’s lawsuit.
“The school is the only location where the facility can be located to provide adequate coverage to the area intended to be served,” AT&T claims in its suit. It disagreed with the city council’s findings that the facility would negatively affect the area.
AT&T asked the court to reverse the application being denied, and issue an order that would allow the facility to be constructed.