But it’s the tenants that aren’t listed — the ones with the stellar rooftop view — that have drawn a crowd of reporters on this sunny Tuesday afternoon.

This building, like 2,000 other spots in the Bay Area, is home to the bulky electrical equipment needed to send and receive cellphone signals.

For the privilege of housing their gear, phone companies pay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per month. In some cases, landlords make more from the towers on their roofs than they do from the tenants inside their building.

Because it’s so hard to get approval to build new towers, the same locations are often home to more than one carrier’s cell towers, and it has become commonplace to see towers from fierce rivals located right next to each other. And once one cell company makes its way in someplace, the others tend to follow.

This particular rooftop, for example, houses gear for Sprint, MetroPCS and ATT.

But it is a neighborhood in transition.

An area of peeled-away paint shows the spot that used to be home to gear from Sprint’s soon-to-be-shuttered Nextel network.

The newest arrival is a refrigererator-sized cabinet that houses Sprint’s 4G LTE gear as well as the systems needed to support older networks. Immediately adjacent is a slightly smaller box containing a backup system with enough battery capacity to power the network gear for four to eight hours.

The new gear, like other similar systems in San Francisco, have begun to bring LTE service to Sprint’s Bay Area customers, though it has yet to formally announce this area as one of its expanding network of markets with the high-speed wireless service.

Next to the new system is the one it is replacing. That unit, which handled fewer frequencies and managed fewer services, nonetheless occupied more than twice as much space. Though still up and running, that system will soon be dismantled, removed and recycled.

In addition to the cabinets, the roof is outfitted with a number of different antennas — several for each of the carriers, providing the maximum amount of coverage. The antennas also explain why it is no coincidence that the building has a sweeping panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay. In addition to being a breathtaking sight for the occasional repairman, the view means that the tower is also seen by a good part of the city — ensuring that the tower reaches a wide coverage area.

“Cell towers have the best view,” said Chris Brydon, Sprint’s area director for Northern California.

Of course, few people will ever see that view, given that it is home to vital and expensive computer gear. Plus, its radiation levels are high enough that the door leading to the roof is plastered with nearly a dozen warning signs.

The fact that this roof is already home to network gear means that the approval process to install LTE equipment is far simpler than trying to find a new location. As a result, many rooftops like this one are getting a makeover.

It’s a scene that has been playing out across America, as all the major carriers replace or augment their 3G systems with those capable of providing high-speed LTE service.

To help install all these new systems, Sprint calls upon a variety of other companies. Ericsson manages the installations and network operations, overseeing gear supplied by a trio of companies — Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson’s hardware unit.

The race to build out LTE has created a shortage of a particular specialty of workers — those who climb poles for a living. (In addition to pole-climbing skills, such workers also have to be engineers with a specialty in radio frequency technology — a qualification that significantly thins the applicant pool.)

“It’s one of the most sought-after skills in the industry,” said Joe Meyer, the 21-year Sprint veteran who serves as vice president of network service management.

Sprint’s new 4G LTE network cabinet (foreground, with door open), followed by the Sprint gear it is replacing and, furthest away, a rival carrier’s gear.

Article source: http://allthingsd.com/20130612/a-view-to-a-cell-san-francisco-mobile-towers-get-prime-real-estate/

“The prospect of being taxed on potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income may motivate more distressed homeowners to forgo a short sale and allow the home to be foreclosed,” said RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist in a release. “Additionally, if the mortgage interest deduction is eliminated due to the fiscal cliff quagmire, it would give many underwater and otherwise distressed homeowners one less reason to hang on to their homes.”

Banks completed 13,351 principal reduction loan modifications in November alone, according to a monthly report from Amherst Securities Group. That’s a 62 percent jump from September. Much of it is thanks to the $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement signed by the nation’s five largest banks early this year over so-called “robo-signing” foreclosure practices.

Banks have already given borrowers $6.3 billion in mortgage principal relief under the settlement, according to a report from its monitor, Joseph A. Smith, released last month. Bank of America recently ramped-up its relief, reporting 30,000 customers were approved or had completed first-lien modifications through September 30 providing $4.75 billion in principal reduction. Borrowers received an average $150,000 slash in loan balances.

(Read More: How ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Could Affect Mortgage Interest Deduction)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100285754