Because the best place for a cell site is sometimes far away from the city or in a bad section of town, security always has been an issue for wireless carriers. In the past, you might have worried about criminals breaking into your sites, but with more carriers coming on-line, it is not vandalism or pranks that you should fear. As you begin to share cell sites, and as employees defect to the competition, it is the inside jobs that should scare you the most.

"Vandalism is usually just kids putting things inside the compound. Generally we don't have a whole lot of problems," said Doug Athas, PrimeCo Dallas regional director of real estate and construction. "Once you are inside a cell site, it is hard to figure out what to steal. It is not going to fit in your car."

Instead, said Stan Earnshaw, Supra industrial products division director, wireless carriers are more concerned about problems that can occur through non-forced entry. Employee turnover is on the rise as PCS carriers eliminate lead time by hiring trained employees away from competitors, he said. When employees leave you for another company and take their keys with them, you face a risk. Sometimes a competing carrier's employees may try to sabotage your equipment. Other times a disgruntled employee is responsible for damage.

If you own the site, you need to build a security system. In a build-to-suit situation, the landlord usually secures the gate and the fence surrounding the compound. It is a good idea to take security into your own hands at other points such as the shelter, a cabinet inside or outside the shelter, or on the equipment itself, Earnshaw said.

Mark Uminski, Crown Communications vice president of sales and marketing, suggested that you place at least three levels of security at your cell sites, and if you lease space, you should look for sites with multiple layers of security. The first level is a gate in front of the road leading to the compound, level two is a fence around the compound, and the third level is a secure equipment building.

SECURITY AT THE GATE The most popular way that carriers secure the gate is with a lock. If you share space on a site, you either can have your own key or combination to a lock that you share with other carriers, or you can daisy chain your own lock with the others on the gate, said Don Anderson, SpectraSite development vice president. SpectraSite uses combination locks because it can change the combination periodically, which is helpful when employees leave the company or if there is a security breach by a site user. Athas likes combination locks as well simply because no one loses his key. However, when someone figures out the code, changing combinations can become a hassle.

"Usually you are using a common access number, and the hardest thing about changing them is that it is labor intensive if you must go to every cell site to change them," he said.

In case an ex-employee does not return his keys to a padlock, you will have to re-core all the locks, Uminski said. Crown is investigating new technologies, such as electronic padlocks, that would save some of the work. Earnshaw agreed that re-coring locks is a time-consuming and expensive proposition because there are costs associated with new locks and with the labor to change them. One carrier spent thousands of dollars to change out all its locks, and it ended up doing it several times a year because of high turnover and problems with employees duplicating keys.

"One other area where carriers lose track of access control in the sites is through contractors and subcontractors," he said. "As soon as a subcontractor knows the combination or has the key, you don't know who he will give it to."

An alternative is to use electronic solutions such as an electronic door lock, lock box or padlock, he said. You give your technician or subcontractor a pager-size electronic key that contains identification information and authorization for him to use it. He places it in the lock, and the door and the key talk to one another. Once everything is validated, the lock opens. If he quits and takes his electronic key, you can put that key on hold and render it useless. Keys typically expire every week, and he renews it by calling in to a computer at the data center.

SOMEONE IS WATCHING The second level, a fence around the compound, also can be secured with key, combination or electronic locks. Uminski said Crown also uses continuous video monitoring and motion detection. If somebody walks in or drives up to the compound at night, he sets off motion detectors, and lights come on. At that point, cameras start recording so carriers can have a history of the occurrence.

Allyn Easter, Crown national director of network services, said Crown uses software-based digital cameras that the company programs to monitor the grounds. The cameras have infrared lenses and lights so that they can record in the dark. The stealth devices are hooked up to the network operations center (NOC) so operators there can watch activity at the site.

GUARDING THE BUILDING Crown also uses cameras at the third level of security, the building or shelter, to monitor building ingress and egress. Whenever a door is opened, the cameras automatically record activity for several seconds, Easter said. If a break-in occurs and a door alarm goes off, the device records continuously so the NOC operator can watch in real time and see what has sounded the alarm. The camera logs the video to a software memory system at the site so that if the operator was not paying attention at the time, he can play back the footage later.

Athas said PrimeCo also relies on alarms at all access points on its shelters and ac units. If anyone comes in without permission, the NOC knows instantly and dispatches police.

Uminski added that when Crown's alarms notify the NOC of an emergency, the computer displays the phone numbers for area police and fire departments as well as the local emergency medical service. Additionally, each site has a phone that connects directly with the NOC, so operators can dispatch police, fire and EMS to the site immediately if an emergency is called in.

Besides locks, cameras and alarms, another way to guard equipment buildings is through electronic-card access. Each door in the building has a card-access panel, and technicians swipe an identification card with an electronic serial number to enter. The information is recorded so you or your landlord will know who went in and out of the building and when.

Unlike key and combination locks that might take you a month to replace, or the electronic padlocks that take a week for you to change the code, you can cut off card access immediately from anywhere in the country. The challenge with card-access systems, however, is the cost, cautioned Earnshaw. Card-access systems can be up to five times as expensive as electronic locks. But if the most important feature to you in a security system is to instantaneously lock out an employee, then a card access is the best option, he said.

Another option that few carriers have considered is a biometric security system. Susan Licciardi, Keyware Technologies marketing manager, said that biometrics use people's physical attributes for enhanced security. The features that companies measure today are voice, face, fingerprint, iris, retina and hand dimensions.

"Biometrics provides a way for people to gain access by using themselves as identification," she said. "It is not what you have, like a security card, or what you know, like a PIN or password. It is who you are."

You can choose one biometric or a variety of biometrics such as face verification combined with fingerprint identification. The software is scaleable and flexible, so you can layer and interchange the biometrics as employees enter areas that require increased security. Every biometric has its limitation, she said. For example, a person's voice is not the same every day , especially if he has a cold. Keyware's software allows you to program the system so that if a person's voice only matches at 75%, it will increase the level of face verification from 85% to 95%.

Like electronic padlocks, Keyware's biometric software also can track who has tried to gain access to the building. If an employee leaves your company or is fired, you simply can disenroll him by pulling his data from the database.

EXTRA PRECAUTIONS If you choose to co-locate, you should consider extra security, said SpectraSite's Anderson, and that means separating your equipment from that of other carriers by installing your own cabinet or your own shelter. That way, you can choose to secure your equipment any way you want. Most carriers use locks on cabinets and alarms or card access on shelters.

Athas said if you must share a shelter with the competition, you can separate equipment with concrete partitions and access your room through a private door. If one giant room is your only option, you can install a chain-link fence between each company's equipment so that you still have separate access and security.

"From an operational standpoint, if you have never had to deal with the fact that multiple people are going to be coming into and out of your site, you need to get that control so you know who was in and out all the time," Easter said. "That is where having a database and a software system can allow you to log data and keep a history."

Aside from monitoring access, there are other advantages to a strong security system. Marilyn Reeves, Hark Systems sales and marketing manager, has noticed that carriers like to see reports of who has been at a site, with the time and date they entered. With such expensive equipment out of view, knowing what is going on at the site is important. When lights come on or a backup generator starts up, it's nice to have a life history of the site. That can be achieved through monitoring, logging and reporting environmental conditions, she said.

Access control is a plus from a co-location standpoint as well. If you decide to rent space on towers to other carriers, implementing multiple levels of security at your sites will make them more attractive to other carriers. Like you, competing wireless companies are looking for security, quality and network integrity. The added security may be expensive, but it will generate revenue for you in the long run.

Even if all of your towers are owned by someone else, keep in mind that the landlord's responsibility only goes so far. Extra security never hurts, Earnshaw said. He quoted one wireless carrier that told him companies should follow the 80-10-10 rule, which goes like this: 10% of the people in the world are inherently trustworthy. Those are the people you can trust to come in and do exactly what they are supposed to do. On the other hand, 10% are inherently distrustworthy and will look for a way around every system you put in.

"The challenge is that 80% of the people are tempted," he said. "What you are trying to do is increase their accountability and sway them toward the first 10%. Those are the people toward which you are gearing your security system."

The one thing electronic-access-control systems offer that key and combination locks do not is a record of who has come in and out of your sites. Not only does the log give you added security, but it also can help you when it comes to paying your subcontractors. For instance, when a technician renews his electronic key, he also downloads his weekly activity into the computer. You can look to the access-control system for vendor and subcontractor billing verification.

"Some of these are remote cell sites," said Stan Earnshaw, Supra industrial products division director. "The vendor sends me a bill. Do I know he was really there? If his key says he was there, then I have a better idea."

Susan Licciardi, Keyware Technologies marketing manager, said the same can be said for a biometrics solution. Additionally, card-access systems record the comings and goings of subcontractors and employees, as do cameras.

Although cell-site security methods are critical to securing your base station, you will need to make other investments to completely protect the performance of your cell-site equipment. Electronic enclosures protect your base stations and base-station components against everything from intruders to tornadoes.

As competition increases and more carriers launch networks, demand for enclosures has skyrocketed in the past few years. According to spokesperson Mike Burns, Chatham Technologies already has noticed an increasing demand for base-station cabinets. For example, the worldwide electronics enclosure industry market currently is estimated at $8 billion to $9 billion, with almost $3 billion of that total in the United States.

But the increased demand also has brought increased competition in the enclosure arena. The trend among OEMs to outsource the production of enclosures has spawned almost 1,000 companies that manufacture enclosures for electronic coverings and cabinets. At Supercomm '98 a handful of these companies unveiled their latest offerings for wireless base stations.

Vero Electronics introduced several new enclosures for fixed wireless loop and GSM base stations, microwave-relay control cabinets, and DECT Radio Arraybase stations, including a Zone 4 outdoor telecom Environmental Protection System (EPS) cabinet designed to protect components from extreme environmental conditions. The EPS cabinet offers thermal management methods, such as heat exchangers and air conditioning or heating units.

"Electronic components are expensive investments," said George Ross, Vero marketing manager. "It is important to protect them."

RELTEC displayed its modular electronic sealed architecture (MESA) cabinet, billed as a "create-your-own enclosure" solution.

MESA components can be taken apart and re-assembled at an installation site. The cabinet is used for rooftop applications, where modules can be hand-carried through a building. MESA accommodates optional air conditioners or heat exchangers and also offers base-station protection, including earthquake resistance and intrusion alarming.

Instant access during a crisis is a side benefit of an electronic-access system because it allows you to buzz people in remotely or issue temporary codes. During the recent satellite malfunction, many carriers were forced to let public utility workers and subcontractors onto their sites to work on networks. Some faced a major inconvenience when they had to travel to a faraway site, sometimes 75 miles away, to give the contractor a key. Marilyn Reeves, Hark Systems sales and marketing manager, said carriers that used electronic access were able to issue a universal password that allowed people to come into the site who did not normally work there.