A new advertising module introduced by Wireless Estimator today makes it easier than ever for suppliers, service companies and contractors to quickly see how they can increase their branding and sales. The innovative and easily viewed gallery highlights all of the marketing offerings that are available on the site. In addition, the interactive design focuses upon the numerous opportunities that …
American Tower’s CEO unloads 47,000 shares and the 48-hour silly cycle begins
When a corporate insider such as an officer or director buys or sells their company’s publicly-traded stock they’re required to file a Form 4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. American Tower Corporation Chairman, President and CEO James Taiclet did that yesterday when he sold 47,000 shares in a transaction that occurred the day before at a price of $100.99, …
Some techs don’t appreciate the long history and reasons for riding the line CPLs
Riding the line, when done properly, can be the safest method of ascending or descending a tower, but some industry workers continue to flout the current riding the line instruction that took safety stakeholders almost 19 years to get OSHA to agree to a compliance directive (CPL) that made sense. The picture at right, which could pass for a sepia-toned …
Time Warner’s fiber-optic backhaul supports close to 20,000 of the country’s cell towers
Charter Communications’ bid for Timer Warner Cable appears to have little opposition, and the $55 billion deal might be approved by the FCC by the end of the year. Included in the sale are two important industry assets, towers and backhaul. Although Time Warner’s total of 653 structures hasn’t grown considerably over the years, but will be complemented by Charter’s …
Pregler and Larsen elected to oversee the guidance of safety alliance’s committees and initiatives
The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) unveiled the organization’s Board of Governors leadership team today in an industry-wide announcement. Art Pregler, Director of National Cell Site Programs at AT&T, will serve as the Chairman of the NWSA’s Board of Governors. Phil Larsen, President of Telecommunications Services at HAZON Solutions, will serve as the Vice Chairman of the organization’s Board of …
Climber’s fall in Rhode Island proves to be not industry related
Bloggers, social and industry media began asking yesterday whether a man who fell from a cell tower was an industry worker because they had viewed a link to an NBC 10 news video which, other than stating that someone had fallen off the tower, provided no details, nor did they. The ensuing speculation resulted in dozens of emails and numerous …
New top 100 U.S. tower owners unveiled with some first-time players and loss of a key owner
Wireless Estimator released today its top 100 tower companies in the U.S. that identifies the same three top consolidators as in previous years, American Tower Corp., Crown Castle International and SBA Communications taking the lead. Although first place American Tower is slightly ahead of Crown in the Top 100 U.S. Tower Companies list by less than 200 towers, it is an …
Boca Raton, Florida is fast becoming the corporate hub of choice for tower owners
Thanks to early siting entrepreneurs Jeffrey Stoops and Marc Ganzi, Boca Raton, Fla. is fast becoming the hub for tower owners’ corporate offices as witnessed by numerous key players’ offices in a two mile stretch along and off of Congress Ave. SBA Communications CEO Stoops used to run his company from its corporate office off of Broken Sound Pkwy., almost within shouting …
Anritsu’s cloud-based tool improves ROI of in-building DAS installation and maintenance
Anritsu Company introduces SkyBridge Tools™, a cloud-based trace judgment solution for tower and in-building Distributed Antenna System (DAS) installations that reduces costs and improves ROI. Serving as a data warehouse for contractors who are installing or modifying equipment for network operators, SkyBridge Tools saves time, reduces rework, and makes timely payment more likely by automating the trace judgment process. SkyBridge …
Subcarrier Communications acquires its Texas-based site management competitor
An industry pioneer in high performance wireless infrastructure development, Subcarrier Communications, announced its $2.1 million purchase of Houston, Tex.-based, AC Site Management. “The purchase of AC Site Management represents a logical next step in creating substantial value for Subcarrier, and for our customers,” said Subcarrier Communications CEO, John Paleski, adding that current and prospective Subcarrier customers “benefit through new service …
Fish fry investigated by U.S. Cellular and the culprit isn’t a cell tower
Commentary Community newspapers suck dry every opportunity they get to write about cell tower rejections, protests and lawsuits because their audience is local, but most wireless industry media refrain from triggering their readers’ boredom thresholds with aggregated NIMBY comatose clutter. However, out of dozens of daily Google alerts Wireless Estimator receives with gag reflex headlines – Harlem says hell no…, …
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 …
Vertical Bridge picks up 43 Townsquare towers and the ability to share in marketing 250 more
Townsquare Media is the latest broadcaster that sees the benefits of selling their broadcast towers that they see as a valuable, but unnecessary asset. The company has announced a deal to sell 43 towers to Vertical Bridge, a company owned by Digital Bridge Holdings for $22.8 million. However, Townsquare will still keep 250 towers, which Vertical Bridge will market to …
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 …
Phoenix Tower International’s U.S. footprint expands with deal to acquire the rights to 600 T-Mobile towers
Boca Raton, Fla.-based Phoenix Tower International (PTI) announced yesterday that it has entered into a contract with T-Mobile to acquire the ownership or management rights relating to approximately 600 wireless communication tower sites including the exclusive right to manage and operate the sites from T-Mobile via PTI’s local US subsidiaries. Terms of the transaction remain confidential between the parties. The …
All Risks acquires industry’s largest program administrator, Tower Program Insurances Services
All Risks, Ltd., the nation’s largest independent insurance wholesaler, has acquired Tower Program Insurance Services, Inc. (TPIS), a national program administrator, based in Austin, Tex. TPIS has developed a national program for the tower construction industry and has joined All Risks, Ltd. effective August 1, 2015. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Patrick Shea and Scott Hermesmeyer, founders of …
New Orleans Saints partners with NATE to host high-profile events at NATE UNITE 2016
The National Football League’s New Orleans Saints and the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) announced today that they are teaming up for several high-profile events that will be held in conjunction with the NATE UNITE 2016 Conference in New Orleans, La. NATE UNITE 2016 will take place Feb. 22 through Feb. 25, 2016 and is widely regarded as the …
AT&T and U.S. Cellular executives Join TIRAP’s Board of Directors
The Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) announced that two new members will be adding their expertise to its Board of Directors. Jim Walker-Pontius, U.S. Cellular’s Director of Network Operations, will serve as Chairman of TIRAP’s Technology Committee. Art Pregler, AT&T’s Director of National Cell Site Programs, has been named Chairman of the Board’s Quality Committee. Retiring from the Board …
