Diesel prices don't just hit truckers, they hit your cell and radio signals

Diesel prices are all over the news right now, but everyone’s talking about it like it’s just a trucking story. It’s not. I’m a broadcast engineer, and I’m here to tell you diesel is the thing keeping radio transmitters and cell sites alive when the power goes out, and right now that backup power is getting brutally expensive.

I break down what diesel actually costs to run a generator at a radio site or cell tower right now compared to a year ago, and the numbers are ugly. I run the math on different generator sizes, look at what happened at WMIT in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, and talk about the FCC’s numbers on how long cell sites actually run on batteries and backup fuel before someone has to physically drive more diesel out there. Spoiler: it’s not as long as you’d hope.

Everyone treats backup power like a checkbox: station has a generator, cool, done. But a generator without fuel, fuel trucks, and people who can actually get to the site is just an expensive lawn ornament. If you care about what keeps communication infrastructure running when everything else fails, and who actually pays for that, this one’s for you.