Why does nobody talk about how fast 5G towers went up in small towns?

I live in a town of like 3,000 people in rural Ohio and I swear there were zero 5G towers here in 2020. By the end of 2022 I counted six of them within a 5 mile radius. Nobody in my town even asked for it, most people still use DSL or satellite internet. It just feels weird how quickly they showed up without any real discussion or public meetings about it. Has anyone else seen this happen in their small town?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseym481mo ago

Same thing happened in my town in upstate New York. I noticed it most when I was driving to work and suddenly had full bars in spots that used to be dead zones for years. What really got me was the timeline. The company that put them up didn't even bother with a public notice. I only found out because a neighbor complained about a crew digging up her front yard without asking. She called the town office and they said it was already approved back in 2019 but nobody remembered to tell anyone. I counted four towers within a mile of my house by early 2023. Most people still use DSL here too, so it feels like someone just decided we needed them and nobody bothered to ask.

derekward1mo agoTop Commenter

Oh I don't know, I actually think there's another side to this. Maybe they didn't put up a big public notice because they knew people would freak out and block it for years, and we'd still be stuck with no service. I live in a rural area and people complain about dead zones constantly, but then when someone actually tries to fix it, everyone suddenly becomes an expert on tower radiation and property values. Your neighbor was mad about them digging up her yard, but honestly the company has to put them somewhere and at least she got cell service out of it. The whole "nobody told us" thing gets old too, because the town approved it back in 2019 and probably sent notices to everyone on the tax roll, people just don't read that stuff. I had a similar thing happen near me and I swear half my neighbors just throw any mail from the town in the trash without looking.