Innovative Engineering, Inc.
1144 Hooper Avenue
Toms River, NJ 07753
732-240-4400
DATE: May 1, 2002
CONTACT: Jo Schloeder,
Creative Approach, inc.
732-751-1004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cellular Pioneer Celebrates
3500th Cell Site Project
TOMS RIVER, NJ - Long before we were carrying cell phones and accessing the Internet from our PDA’s, Shark River Hills resident Peter Longo was designing and inspecting cell sites for cellular towers and antennas. Since 1982, Longo has been involved to varying degrees in over 3500 cell site projects, making him one of the most senior members of the state’s cellular engineering community. A professional engineer, Longo is vice president of engineering at Innovative Engineering, Inc., Toms River.
“Here at Innovative, I am working on my 3,500th project,” said Longo, “Although many have been in New Jersey, the sites have been primarily located in metropolitan areas from Baltimore to Boston,” he said.
As a pioneer in the field, Longo explained that he was involved in the creation of the first cell sites on the East Coast when the New York City metropolitan area was among several cities chosen from around the country as a test project.
“We were constructing a network before they were selling phones, “ he remarked.
Some may recall the first cellular telephones, circa early 1980’s; heavy, bulky battery-powered models carried over the shoulder like a military field telephone. Smaller cellular “car phones” gained popularity later in the 1980’s, but were less mobile as they were permanently installed in automobiles. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the cellular industry took off with the introduction of small, handheld portable phones that were the forerunners of today’s cell phones.
“The low power of the first handheld cell phones created an immediate need for more cell sites,” Longo said. Spurred by the overall acceptance by the general population, growth of the cellular products soared, and with it, the need for more infrastructure.
“I believe wireless telephones will continue to evolve to an even more important role in our daily lives. It will continue to replace the hardwired landline telephone and society will rely more on portable phones than we do now,” predicted Longo.
He explained that as technology evolves he plans to help meet industry needs, whatever those needs may be.
“Ray Krok, the founder of McDonald’s, once said that he didn’t know what his restaurants would be selling in the future, but he knew McDonald’s would be selling more than anyone else. That’s kind of how I feel. The industry is here to stay. In the future there are going to be system upgrades, technical upgrades, maintenance… or some other design requirements. I can’t predict the future, but similar to Ray Krok, I know Innovative Engineering will be providing the services the industry needs to remain competitive.”
Particularly, Longo cited issues such as gaps in coverage and insufficient capacity as problems the wireless industry must solve for the future.
“Places like the entrances to tunnels where traffic is congested, ball games, concerts… any place where people concentrate in one area trying to make a phone call… these are the places that the industry needs to focus on to prevent lack of capacity issues from being a significant problem in the future.”
Pioneer or Student?
Longo downplays his role as a pioneer of the industry, crediting instead the inventors of wireless technology as the true pioneers. “The people who dream this stuff up – the ones who design the hardware that transforms a phone call from voice into electronic data then back to voice again – they are the real geniuses of the wireless industry.”
“One of the things that amazes me is that you can use a wireless telephone and call someone in California and it’s as if you’re talking to that person in the next room. To think about the distance combined with the transformation that call must go through– from the handset, over the airwaves to a tower, to a switching station, long distance across the country to another switching station, back to another tower, back to another handset. For all of that to happen in a couple of milliseconds is mind-boggling.”
“I have always had this premonition that the phone companies would be able to do amazing things, and now we can see the incredible changes in the technology of landline phones. When we were kids we could not even conceive of call waiting, voice mail, Internet dialups and modems. I believe the phone companies are now just scratching the surface as to the potential for services they can provide.”
Longo grew up in the Essex County, NJ town of West Orange and received his undergraduate degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He received his masters of science in civil engineering from NJIT and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Institute for Professional Practice. He is called upon regularly to provide expert testimony, and has been involved in landmark court cases regarding cellular sites. A licensed engineer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Longo has been published in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Journal of Engineering Management. He is also a competitive sports fisherman, recently returning from a fishing trip to the Amazon. He has won numerous awards and trophies and has fished throughout the United States including Alaska, and in Costa Rica and Brazil.
From planning to implementation, Innovative Engineering, Inc. produces results that translate to speed to market with significant cost savings. For more information, contact the firm at 732-240-4400 or visit their website at www.InnovativeEngineering.Net.