Sprint: Towercos have nothing to worry about – for now At two conference calls this morning, Sprint said that an article by tech website Re/code on Jan. 15, 2016, was not accurate, and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, during a media call, said the misinformation regarding a Sprint radical network overhaul “caused a lot of damage”. Re/code had claimed, according to …
Sprint should have a sanity check before it commits ‘Network Suicide’ with its pole plans
By Iain Gillott – Commentary Much has been written and speculated in the last week about Sprint’s network plans after the publication of a Re/Code article and the plan to significantly cut network expenses. Aside from the resulting pressure on the stocks of several wireless companies, including Sprint’s, it also appears that the article has caused Sprint to move up …
Tower company executives’ ears will be on Sprint’s conference call tomorrow
Sprint moved its quarterly analysts’ earnings call to tomorrow morning in what some analysts believe is an apparent move to ease the concerns of investors after an article on a tech website said that the carrier was going to move its base stations from American Tower and Crown Castle sites to government properties “which costs much less”. The carrier had …
Report of Sprint dumping its tower companies is slowly being debunked as industry stocks nose-dive
After the media threw Sprint, American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA Communications under the bus during the past five days by republishing unsubstantiated statements that appeared on a tech website, without adding research of their own, editors are starting to reassess their ‘need to be first’ news blast that resulted in all four companies’ stocks tanking Friday. Sprint suffered the most …
Misleading Re/code Sprint story is long on conjecture, short on facts
Facts that would have made better reading and more sense By Ken Schmidt After reading Wireless Estimator’s article, “Towercos tank after radical unconfirmed report of government competition,” and seeing the original article from Re/code on Friday, I felt compelled to respond. It seemed reckless to me that a website like Re/code could publish an unconfirmed report, have it copied by …
Towercos tank after radical unconfirmed report of government competition
Report seen as ‘nonsense’ by siting professionals UPDATE, Jan. 19, 2016 – Deep diving industry expert Ken Schmidt has provided a detailed analysis of why Re/code’s “improper deductive reasoning” in their article doesn’t dovetail with available information regarding Sprint’s Next Generation Network. The story, published on Jan. 15, 2016, claimed that Sprint would be relocating its cell sites from American Tower Corporation …
Wireless workforce and supplier requirements for 2016 continue to be mostly upbeat
To project whether 2016 will be a banner, bust or somewhere-in-between year for wireless construction, and service and supplier providers, one has to simply search for the devil or angel that’s always in the details. Unfortunately, conflicting details and limited industry information clouds accurate projections. But the industry overall appears to be still creating jobs and there should be a robust …
FCC’s wireless competition report has its Commissioner and association adversaries
The Federal Communications Commission released its 18th report to Congress on competition in the wireless industry which sheds little light on whether or not carriers are competitive. The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau said in its report that the goal of the Commission is to promote competition and it “must continue to play an essential role in the mobile wireless industry,” hopefully …
AT&T work is a top Christmas wish list item for contractors and suppliers
Last year’s holiday gifts from AT&T came in the form of canceled construction purchase orders bandaged in cheerfully-colored stress-relieving bubble wrap, painstakingly selected by CEO Randall Stephenson. And although Stephenson told investors last week that “there’s going to be a continual downward pressure on our capital spending,” possibly signaling another coal stocking stuffer, some analysts believe that AT&T is going …
New York subway system’s DAS expansion welcomed in troubling times
With New York City going to high alert in response to the release of a new ISIS video that sets Times Square in the terror group’s bombing or chemical-warfare sight, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s announcement last Thursday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Transit Wireless have launched the Phase 4 expansion of wireless, public safety and Wi-Fi services …
FCC hits two carriers with $85,000 in fines for RF exposure rooftop violations in Arizona
Two carriers were cited by the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau for similar violations for failing to comply with the FCC’s radio frequency exposure limits after the owner of a building at 4040 E. McDowell Rd., Phoenix, Ariz. complained to enforcement agents that his building staff have difficulty gaining RF exposure safety assistance from the carriers that use his rooftop. …
T-Mobile’s Legere predicts ‘dark horse’ bidders in 600 MHz auction
John Legere, the oftentimes eccentric and outspoken CEO of T-Mobile US, in a studio setting that mirrored an Imus in the Morning production complete with caustic remarks by the un-carrier chief, provided an entertaining as well as illuminating third-quarter conference call where Legere said today, “I do expect some dark horses to show up,” such as Google and Charter Communications …
Crown Castle will reinstate gag order keeping them from discussing carriers
Crown Castle CEO Ben Moreland said yesterday during the company’s Q3 conference call that Crown’s executives used to refrain from speaking with any specificity about carrier deployments, but “over the last couple of years, we’ve sort of relaxed that standard, and probably spoken a little bit too much occasionally around specific carrier deployment plans.” But Crown’s easing of carrier build …
T-Mobile and Verizon tie for high LTE speeds in the U.S. but America gets a failing grade
T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless are almost tied for the fastest U.S. LTE data speeds, according to OpenSignal, a network testing firm. However, the U.S. was ranked number nine in the world for coverage, but received failing grades for its LTE speeds overall. Verizon was identified as having the most LTE coverage in America, followed by AT&T, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Sprint …
Key analyst likes Crown Castle, but sees American Tower with less acquisition exposure
Morningstar analyst Michael Hodel has provided an excellent overview of the industry’s three publicly-traded companies, American Tower Corp., Crown Castle International, and SBA Communications. Whereas there are almost daily yawn-inducing recommendations from analysts, Hodel’s insight and extensive analysis is worth the read. Although Hodel has previously said that his favorite amongst the towercos is Crown Castle, because he thinks it …
Shentel to acquire Ntelos in a $640M regional deal that doesn’t include towers
Mid-Atlantic regional wireless carrier Shentel announced that it will be acquiring another carrier, Ntelos, in a deal set at $640 million, including net debt. The transaction will double Shentel’s subscriber base, but not its 151 tower count since Ntelos’ 103 towers were sold to Grain Management earlier this year for $41 million. Sprint is heavily involved in the transaction and …
National Wireless Safety Alliance’s Board selected to guide assessment and certification programs
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) unveiled the organization’s inaugural Board of Governors roster today in an industry-wide announcement. The NWSA is a national non-profit assessment and certification organization that is under development 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 …
Routers, fiber line cut blamed for massive cell phone outage in the Southeast
Cell phone service was restored Tuesday at about 8:00 p.m. after a major outage in the southeastern United States that began approximately five hours earlier in the day. In a statement issued by AT&T at 10 p.m., the carrier said: “Wireless and wireline service has been restored for all customers in parts of the Southeast affected by a hardware-related network …
Towercos, contractors and small cell providers expected to benefit from Sprint’s network overhaul
In Sprint’s earnings call this morning, the carrier said that they were going to have a massive network overhaul that will include thousands of new macro sites, tens of thousands of new small cells, and the upgrade of almost all existing sites to support its three spectrum bands, 800 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2.5 GHZ. Analysts believe that Sprint will …
American Tower monopole destroyed following Virginia welding accident
Polyethylene insulation on coaxial transmission lines caught fire Tuesday in Newport News, Virg. when a crew was welding on a monopole behind Heritage High School. According to Newport News Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Pincus, the coaxial cable caught on fire as maintenance workers were welding on the tower just before noon. The flames quickly spread along the insulation of …
