New AT&T Wireless tower goes live

UPDATE, October 31st 2014: AT&T has activated this tower, which provides LTE data speeds and 5 bars in the town of Parker.

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AT&T Wireless took the first week of 2014 to install a new cell tower serving the Parker, AZ area. The 120-foot tower was constructed on Geronimo Avenue in Parker, on a lot owned by Parker Towing.

The tower will be the wireless carrier’s first in La Paz County. Before now, AT&T Wireless customers in the Parker area were served by a tower almost 12 miles away, south of Vidal, CA. The Vidal site was upgraded to 4G last year, allowing higher mobile data speeds for those with AT&T phones.

Plans for the new cell tower have been in the works for well over a year. Wireless carriers typically design their systems around allocated radio engineering standards that are compatible with the licenses they own and will serve a population that needs better coverage.

AT&T Wireless is among the last of the major carriers to invest seriously in the Parker area. The carrier came last in a Parker Live popularity poll among Parker area residents several years ago, with Verizon topping the list of preferred carriers for the area. Since then, T-Mobile and Sprint/Nextel have also installed new cell sites here, perhaps in recognition that the area swells with visitors in both summer and winter that far outnumber the permanent resident population.