Environment: Cellular's New Camouflage

As public-utility execs start to wake up to their potential role in the wireless revolution, ailing tower companies are starting to head indoors. SpectraSite, a Cary, N.C., firm that filed for bankruptcy this month, is installing distributed-antenna systems inside malls, airports and other big buildings largely sealed off from outside airwaves. Using credit-card-size antennas and existing fiber-optic-cable networks to provide perfect indoor coverage, these wireless systems mimic landlines by offering universal access to the infrastructure and charging individual carriers for customer use. There are more than 1,000 tiny antennas up and running in Las Vegas hotels, where mini-camouflage is already in full swing. LGC Wireless of San Jose, Calif., has artfully blended in these cell sites with ceiling frescoes at the Venetian Casino Resort. Those who are worried about the health risks associated with these ubiquitous low-powered antennas might be reassured to know that LGC's newest client is the very institution that approved their safety, the fcc.

Even as the next generation of wireless equipment calls for ever shrinking antennas, tall towers will probably avoid extinction by offering fixed-wireless service in rural areas where other high-speed Internet access isn't available. Meanwhile, AT&T Wireless and Cingular are building a joint network along 3,000 miles of highway in the Midwest and West. That includes a lot of wide open spaces where there's no place to hide. --With reporting by Jyl Benson/New Orleans