Tower work looks the same in the photos. On the ground, it doesn’t run the same. An electric utility wants crews who can work next to a live substation without becoming the outage, on one site or a multi-state program. A military installation wants a lighting plant restored or a training tower taken down inside the fence. A WISP wants a WISP crew at WISP prices. Same codes, same climbers. Different paperwork, different people on the job, different pace.
Vertical Axis runs civil, steel, and RF crews in-house on one service catalog that works for every customer. What changes from one industry to the next is the paperwork, the people you have to answer to, and how fast the work has to move.
An electric utility wants IEEE 80 grounding, licensed microwave for teleprotection, and a crew that can run the same stack across a multi-state territory without becoming the outage. A federal or military site wants obstruction lighting restored on an airfield, a rappel tower taken down, or a comms site built inside the fence — with badging in the plan. A WISP wants the radios installed right and the quote priced like a WISP quote, not a carrier quote with an extra zero on the end. A tribe building broadband on its own land wants a contractor who understands sovereignty, NEPA Section 106, and NTIA TBCP reporting. An oil and gas operator wants fast-deploy poles on a remote pad with a crew that respects production uptime. A county sheriff or 911 center wants 4.9 GHz PTP experience and a path that stays up when the weather turns ugly. A municipal or co-op broadband program wants BEAD-compliant paperwork and milestone dates that don’t slip.
Same standards. Same craft. Different industry, different conversation.
SCADA backhaul, distribution automation, and substation communications. Multi-state programs, IEEE 80 grounding, teleprotection-grade microwave.
Obstruction lighting on airfields and ranges. Training-tower and rappel-tower takedowns. Comms builds inside the fence.
Fluent in WISP-scale gear: Ubiquiti, Tarana, Cambium, Mimosa, RF Elements. We know your margins and timelines, and we don't bill carrier rates for prosumer work.
Wellhead SCADA, pipeline monitoring, and remote facility comms. Built for harsh conditions and production-sensitive schedules.
Co-ops, municipalities, and federally-funded broadband buildouts. BEAD, ReConnect, and grant-compliant project scopes.
Two-way and broadband infrastructure for counties, municipalities, and emergency agencies. 4.9 GHz public safety band experience.
Sovereign broadband buildouts and tower work on tribal lands. Scoped for NTIA Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) timelines and deliverables.
We also work with carrier tower owners, broadcast stations, and private industrial networks (mining, rail, large agriculture). Send us the scope and we'll tell you straight whether we're a fit.
300+ ISPs served. Fluent in Ubiquiti, Tarana (G1 and G2), Cambium, Mimosa, Nokia, Baicells, and RF Elements. We don't price carrier rates for prosumer work.
New site builds, direct embedment monopoles, sector and backhaul, antenna and radio install, microwave backhaul, plumb and tension, maintenance and inspection, decommissioning.
Sovereign broadband buildouts on tribal lands. Scoped for NTIA Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) milestones, Section 106 THPO consultation, and tribal land-use paperwork.
Site design, new site builds, foundations and civil, tower erection, sector and backhaul, microwave backhaul, maintenance, decommissioning.
Substation comms, SCADA backhaul, distribution automation. Multi-state IOU programs, utility-grade grounding, licensed Part 101 microwave for teleprotection.
New site builds, foundations and civil, tower erection, direct embedment monopoles, microwave backhaul (TDM / teleprotection), grounding and cadwelding (IEEE 80 / 837), maintenance and inspection.
Airfield and range lighting, non-comms structure teardowns, comms builds inside the fence. Badging and escorts in the mobilization plan. Sub to the prime or direct to the facility.
Obstruction lighting, tower decommissioning (including training and rappel towers), new site builds, modifications, maintenance, plumb and tension.
Wellhead SCADA, pipeline monitoring, remote facility comms. Fast-deploy monopoles for production-sensitive schedules on remote pads and pipeline corridors.
New site builds, direct embedment monopoles, microwave backhaul, antenna and radio install, obstruction lighting, maintenance, decommissioning.
County-scale PTP rings, 4.9 GHz public-safety band, dispatch and repeater aggregation. Redundant paths and carrier-grade equipment for traffic that can't go down.
New site builds, tower erection, microwave backhaul (ring topology), sector and backhaul, grounding and cadwelding, obstruction lighting, maintenance.
BEAD, USDA ReConnect, and state broadband grant scopes. Grant-compliant paperwork, milestone schedules, and speed-tier coverage verification.
Site design, new site builds, foundations and civil, tower erection, sector and backhaul, antenna and radio install, maintenance.
The engineering is the same across every customer. What changes is the audit trail: who has to sign off, who is reading the as-builts, and who the inspector is.
ANSI structural standard for antenna-supporting structures. Plumb tolerance, guy pre-load, bolt torque, and ice / wind loading on every tower we build, modify, or inspect.
Current advisory circular for obstruction marking and lighting. L-810 / L-864 / L-865 / L-856 / L-857 / L-866 / L-885 designators, photometric output, dual systems.
Federal rules for which structures need FAA marking and FCC ASR registration. Covers which towers need to be lit and how outages get reported.
Licensed microwave (Part 101), unlicensed RF (Part 15), CBRS (Part 96), and Private Land Mobile / 4.9 GHz public safety (Part 90). We file, coordinate, and install to the right framework for your link.
International recommendation for terrestrial line-of-sight microwave availability. Rain-fade, fade-margin, and availability modeled per P.530 on every licensed link.
Grounding and bonding. R56 default on WISP and commercial work; stricter IEEE 80 and 837 on utility-grade and substation sites.
National Historic Preservation Act consultation. State Historic Preservation Office or tribal THPO review coordinated on federal-land, historic, and tribal-jurisdiction sites.
Federal broadband program paperwork. Milestone reporting, speed-tier coverage verification, and grant-compliance scopes on tribal (TBCP), state (BEAD), and USDA (ReConnect) programs.
Federal and industry safety standards for communication-tower work. 100% tie-off, authorized rescue, site-specific safety plan on every climb.
Seven that we publish pages for, and a handful of related industries we also work.
We also work with carrier tower owners on modification and maintenance scope, broadcast stations on tall-tower antenna work, and private industrial networks (mining, rail, large agriculture) on remote comms buildouts. If your industry isn’t on the list, send the scope.
Three things change: the paperwork, the people on the job, and the pace.
Same codes, same crew. Different job.
Yes, on three federal programs:
Grant-compliance paperwork, milestone schedules, and speed-tier coverage verification are part of standard scope on any grant-funded build. We’ve done it before, and the paperwork is usually the harder part of the job.
Honest list:
Outside those two, we’re probably a fit, including carrier macro-cell new builds and carrier tower modifications. Send the scope and we’ll say so honestly.
Send us the site (address or coordinates), the tower type and height, and what you’re trying to do. If you’re on a grant-funded program, tell us which one (TBCP, BEAD, ReConnect, or a state-specific program). If you’re on a regulated utility or public-safety framework, tell us which (Part 90, Part 101, IEEE 80, NERC CIP).
Request a quote here or call us at (763) 280-6050. Most scopes get a line-itemed quote back inside a week. Grant-funded builds typically take two weeks because the paperwork review takes the time, not the steel.
Different kind of project? Send it over. We answer every scoping call.
Send the location, tower type, scope, and timeline. We come back with a quote, a crew, and a schedule you can build a business around.
