(Fairfax, Virginia) - The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) announced today that vertical infrastructure real-estate companies SBA Communications Corporation and Vertical Bridge are placing NWSA certification requirements for technicians working on their respective sites and networks in their Master Service Agreements (MSA’s).
NWSA currently offers the following industry-wide certification programs: Telecommunications Tower Technician 1 (TTT-1), Telecommunications Tower Technician 2 (TTT-2), Antenna & Line Specialty and Telecommunications Tower Foreman. Other assessment and certification programs NWSA will likely unveil in the future include Rigging, Small Cell/DAS, Structural Modifications, Gin Pole Operations and Broadcast Tall Tower Technician.
The companies placing NWSA certification requirements in their MSA’s typically require a percentage of the vendor company’s tower technicians on crews to be NWSA TTT-1 or TTT-2 certified with a minimum number of certified technicians on site. These requirements are slated to gradually increase each subsequent year to encourage widespread adoption by tower crews in the United States.
“NWSA’s vision from the very beginning is that these certification programs will get to scale through a marketplace-driven approach and we applaud the continuing proactive leadership of SBA Communications and Vertical Bridge by placing NWSA credentialing requirements into their MSA’s,” said Executive Director Duane MacEntee. “NWSA certified personnel represent the gold-standard in safety and quality and we are very encouraged about the continued momentum our worker certification programs are gaining in the industry.”
“SBA fully supports the mission of NWSA to enhance safety and improve quality on towers and other structures. We believe in it so strongly that starting next June, we will be ensuring vendors that work on our assets will obtain their certification over time,” said Mark Ciarfella, SBA Executive Vice President of Operations and member of NWSA’s Board of Directors.
Added Bernard Borghei, Executive Vice President of Operations and Co-Founder of Vertical Bridge, who also serves on the NWSA Board of Governors: “The safety of the personnel working on our sites is of the utmost importance to us and we applaud NWSA for their growing list of credential offerings. We believe an NWSA certification will provide technicians with the tools and knowledge they need to more safely construct, deploy and maintain infrastructure assets.”
NWSA, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, is a national non-profit assessment and certification organization established to provide thorough, independent assessments of knowledge and skills and provide verifiable worker certification in order to enhance safety, reduce workplace risk, improve quality, encourage training, and recognize the skilled professionals who work on towers and other non-standard communication structures.
Industry workers, companies and stakeholders are encouraged to visit the NWSA website at www.nws-a.org to learn more about the organization and how to begin the process of obtaining certification.