AT&T telecommunications relay equipment should be up and running on a Corrales cell phone tower by mid-July.

At last, presumably, iPhones, other cell phones, notebooks and tablets served by AT&T should function as intended after years of frustration.

Until now, only T-mobile equipment is installed on the new cell tower between the Village Office and the Corrales Senior Center, along East La Entrada. 

Gravity Pad, the firm that leases the tower, had expected AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Cricket to rent space on the tower installed almost two years ago.

Kevin Winner said the popular iPhones should work much better after AT&T mounts its transmitter-receiver on the tower here. “It should be in operation by the middle of July,” Winner said.

Installation was expected to begin by mid-May. “We have solid information now that AT&T will be proceeding. People will be excited, especially my parents,” who live near the tower on East La Entrada, Winner said.

Mayor Phil Gasteyer also hailed the news. “This will be welcomed by the community since many  people have iPhones and Blackberries, most of which use AT&T signals.

“And it should add $2,500 in rental income to the $14,000 or so the Village currently receives from use of the tower.”

The mayor and Village Council members publicly rebuked AT&T officials earlier this year for not mounting their equipment on the Village’s tower as previously promised.

A regional manager for AT&T was effectively called on the carpet at the November 8, 2011 Village Council meeting and was testily grilled for the telecommunication giant’s failure to install receiver-transmitters on Corrales’ new cell tower.

Scott September, of AT&T Mobility, came before the mayor and council after it had been reported at an earlier council meeting that the owners of the new tower, Gravity Pad, Inc. could not persuade AT&T to install its equipment on the new cell tower outside the Village Office although it had earlier agreed to do so.