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Communications: The Unseen Infrastructure, by Jack Andersen, 2000
Since the inception of cities, humans have continually sought connection with each other. Connectivity might be
in the form of residing in close proximity to one another in urban settings, physically traveling vast distances to
other concentrations of human settlement or communicating the spoken or written word both near and far
away. Prerequisites for many great civilizations in the past included the ability to construct and maintain roads.
In addition to natural resources, civil laws and monetary exchange, urban societies depend on the ability to
trade and pass information to distant places. In modern society as it was in classical and ancient times, the
primacy of the human characteristic is movement and communication; the way these primacies are
accomplished thus becomes the major influencing force that shapes overall city form.
Prior to the advent of the telegraph, transportation and communication had a direct, one to one relationship.
With the exception of homing pigeons, smoke signals or other techniques, communication over 10 miles required
the physical movement of a human to pass the information. When the telegraph became widely used during the
industrial revolution, communication could be accomplished without human movement: a means of compressing
time and space. Recently with the rise of the post-industrial age and our dependence on information, the
relationship between communication and transportation is now moving back closer to one another. However,
communication will never again directly depend on transportation but, in fact, the roles are now slowly reversing
and we should start to see the former dominate the latter, a complete paradigm shift, critical for the evolution
from modernity to a post-modern world. One of the main technologies driving this shift and reversal of
transportation’s dominant role, is the growing use of wireless and mobile communications. This trend of
increased use of wireless will surely affect the way cities are designed and how urbanity is defined in the future.
Frank Lloyd Wright understood the powerful influences of the telephone and how it could assist in defining a new
city typology. It is no coincidence that the prototypical “Edge City” bears a physical resemblance to Wright’s
Broadacre City concept developed in the 1930’s. He identified the radio, telephone and telegraph, all precursors
to wireless communications, as major components of his decentralized, automobile based, agrarian society.
More recently, Manuel Castells in his Information City re-states the reason that past city centers developed with
concentrated densities. Due to technological constraints up until as recently as 1970’s, close proximity was
cheaper, more practical and less time consuming than a more dispersed urban landscape. As technology
improved and automobile along with landline telephone systems became cheaper, being subsidized by
government policy, the advantages of high-density urban environments disappeared and thus encouraged the
white, middle-class to flee the traditional city for life at the periphery. Both Wright and Castells view
transportation, the auto, and communication, the telephone, as separate acts. One certainly can drive and talk
on the phone or two-way radio at the same time, but there is little indication in ether Wright’s or Castells’ writings
of any byproduct or cause and effect of movement and communicating simultaneously via the auto and wireless
technology.
Wireless systems also known as cellular and PCS (Personal Communications Services) are made up of a network
of radio transmitting and receiving points known as cells or cell sites. Verizon, AT&T Wireless and Nextel
provide traditional cellular service while Pacific Bell and Sprint are the new PSC carriers. Digital signals pass
between individual handset phones and the cell sites. The transmissions then feed into a landline switch and
are then relayed into the conventional telephone system. The cells themselves are generally several miles apart
but distance can vary depending upon the system type, terrain and customer usage. A cell site consists of radio
equipment and antennas mounted 40’ to 60’ above the ground on an elevated structure. In the past, the
mounting structure consisted of a “monopole” or lattice tower. Nowadays, most city planning agencies
encourage service providers to “stealth” (hide) antennas on existing commercial buildings. Most wireless
coverage is concentrated along major transportation corridors. However, most carriers are now attempting to
provide coverage within commercial buildings and residential areas. In fact, many in the telecommunications
industry believe that in the future, landlines in the form of copper or fiber will be primary used for large blocks of
data transmission. Within the next 10 years, wireless will handle 75% of all voice communications in the home
and office and 50% of Internet traffic. Nevertheless, the focus now is service for the freeways and major arterial
highways. Incidentally, Government policy through the FCC is attempting to widen the use of wireless phones by
bundling together unused frequencies of the radio spectrum and auctioning them off, thus creating more service
providers, market completion and lower prices.
Since the inception of cities, humans have continually sought connection with each other. Connectivity might be
in the form of residing in close proximity to one another in urban settings, physically traveling vast distances to
other concentrations of human settlement or communicating the spoken or written word both near and far
away. Prerequisites for many great civilizations in the past included the ability to construct and maintain roads.
In addition to natural resources, civil laws and monetary exchange, urban societies depend on the ability to
trade and pass information to distant places. In modern society as it was in classical and ancient times, the
primacy of the human characteristic is movement and communication; the way these primacies are
accomplished thus becomes the major influencing force that shapes overall city form.
Prior to the advent of the telegraph, transportation and communication had a direct, one to one relationship.
With the exception of homing pigeons, smoke signals or other techniques, communication over 10 miles required
the physical movement of a human to pass the information. When the telegraph became widely used during the
industrial revolution, communication could be accomplished without human movement: a means of compressing
time and space. Recently with the rise of the post-industrial age and our dependence on information, the
relationship between communication and transportation is now moving back closer to one another. However,
communication will never again directly depend on transportation but, in fact, the roles are now slowly reversing
and we should start to see the former dominate the latter, a complete paradigm shift, critical for the evolution
from modernity to a post-modern world. One of the main technologies driving this shift and reversal of
transportation’s dominant role, is the growing use of wireless and mobile communications. This trend of
increased use of wireless will surely affect the way cities are designed and how urbanity is defined in the future.
Frank Lloyd Wright understood the powerful influences of the telephone and how it could assist in defining a new
city typology. It is no coincidence that the prototypical “Edge City” bears a physical resemblance to Wright’s
Broadacre City concept developed in the 1930’s. He identified the radio, telephone and telegraph, all precursors
to wireless communications, as major components of his decentralized, automobile based, agrarian society.
More recently, Manuel Castells in his Information City re-states the reason that past city centers developed with
concentrated densities. Due to technological constraints up until as recently as 1970’s, close proximity was
cheaper, more practical and less time consuming than a more dispersed urban landscape. As technology
improved and automobile along with landline telephone systems became cheaper, being subsidized by
government policy, the advantages of high-density urban environments disappeared and thus encouraged the
white, middle-class to flee the traditional city for life at the periphery. Both Wright and Castells view
transportation, the auto, and communication, the telephone, as separate acts. One certainly can drive and talk
on the phone or two-way radio at the same time, but there is little indication in ether Wright’s or Castells’ writings
of any byproduct or cause and effect of movement and communicating simultaneously via the auto and wireless
technology.
Wireless systems also known as cellular and PCS (Personal Communications Services) are made up of a network
of radio transmitting and receiving points known as cells or cell sites. Verizon, AT&T Wireless and Nextel
provide traditional cellular service while Pacific Bell and Sprint are the new PSC carriers. Digital signals pass
between individual handset phones and the cell sites. The transmissions then feed into a landline switch and
are then relayed into the conventional telephone system. The cells themselves are generally several miles apart
but distance can vary depending upon the system type, terrain and customer usage. A cell site consists of radio
equipment and antennas mounted 40’ to 60’ above the ground on an elevated structure. In the past, the
mounting structure consisted of a “monopole” or lattice tower. Nowadays, most city planning agencies
encourage service providers to “stealth” (hide) antennas on existing commercial buildings. Most wireless
coverage is concentrated along major transportation corridors. However, most carriers are now attempting to
provide coverage within commercial buildings and residential areas. In fact, many in the telecommunications
industry believe that in the future, landlines in the form of copper or fiber will be primary used for large blocks of
data transmission. Within the next 10 years, wireless will handle 75% of all voice communications in the home
and office and 50% of Internet traffic. Nevertheless, the focus now is service for the freeways and major arterial
highways. Incidentally, Government policy through the FCC is attempting to widen the use of wireless phones by
bundling together unused frequencies of the radio spectrum and auctioning them off, thus creating more service
providers, market completion and lower prices.
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