NextG boxes pop up across village

Valley Stream residents may have seen the installation of what looked like a transformer on the tops of six telephone poles throughout the village, but the newly-installed boxes and antennas are actually cell service boosters, intended to increase cell phone reception in particular areas of the village.

The antennas, brown metal boxes either affixed to existing Verizon telephone poles or new poles built by Next G, are placed about 20-feet off the ground and are about four feet long and 1 1/2 feet wide. The Town of Hempstead recently agreed to work with NextG after it was determined by the New York State Public Service Commission that NextG was a public utility. As such, NextG is governed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, allowing the company to install structures without adhering to local zone regulations.

NextG, the oldest distributed antennae system network provider in the country, installed six antennas and equipment cabinets adjacent these six locations –– 70 Woodlawn Ave., 108 E. Euclid St., the southwest corner of Morris Parkway and Rockaway Parkway, 203 Albermarle Ave., 300 E. Chester St. and 12 Rosedale Road.

William Kearns, 78, lives at 300 E. Chester St., said he didn’t like how the box looked in front of his home, and was afraid of how the antenna’s wave emissions might affect his health. “This is a nuisance to me and I’m afraid I’m going to get cancer from the pole,” he said.

The antennas, which are used to increase cell phone service, are connected by a coax cable to a radio frequency-to-lightwave converter box on the pole.The box converts radio frequencies captured by the antenna into light wave signals which are then transported via fiber optic cable. Radio frequencies are innocuous and is the same frequency a stereo or television emits. Village Clerk Vinny Ang said that Valley Streamers should not have any health concerns about the antennas. “They are boosters and intended to strengthen cell phone use,” Ang said. “They meet all safety standards.”