On Monday, December 1, at approximately 10:30 a.m., a tower technician fell from a cell tower and later succumbed to his injuries, according to the Douglas County, Wisconsin Sheriff’s Office in a brief statement. Sheriff Matt Izzard said his agency received a report that a male worker had fallen roughly 100 feet from a structure located off Industrial Park Road …
NATE and AT&T reach a landmark deal — What it means for the tower-contracting industry
In a move that could rewrite the business model for how America’s wireless infrastructure gets built and maintained, NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association and AT&T recently reached an agreement to overhaul longstanding contracting practices. According to NATE, the deal includes fundamental changes the association expects will “advance material aspects of the tower construction ecosystem,” including phasing out the “turf …
Crown Castle follows American Tower’s lead, suing DISH for attempting to walk away from its MSA
Crown Castle has become the second major tower operator to sue DISH Wireless after the carrier notified infrastructure partners of its intent to shed large portions of its wireless business through spectrum-sale transactions. Just weeks after American Tower filed suit demanding that DISH honor its long-term lease commitments despite the pending spectrum sale, Crown Castle has taken the same position, …
DigitalBridge secures $11.7 B for DBP III as demand surges for AI-era infrastructure, yet stock performance lags
DigitalBridge Group, Inc. announced a major financial milestone with the closing of its third value-added digital infrastructure fund, DigitalBridge Partners III, securing more than $7.2 billion in commitments. When combined with $4.5 billion in limited-partner co-investment commitments that accompany DBP III’s early portfolio, the firm now has amassed $11.7 billion dedicated to scaling the next generation of digital infrastructure. It …
Texas tower technician’s death leads to OSHA citation and reduced penalty of $4,500 to RB Telecom Services
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a “serious” violation and settlement fine of $4,500 to RB Telecom Services, LLC, following the fatal fall of a tower technician working on a T-Mobile build at an American Tower site in Cotton Valley, Louisiana. The incident occurred on February 17, 2025, when a 27-year-old Texas tower technician fell from a platform of …
From arbitration to Peppertree execs’ arrest warrants, Continental Towers dispute spreads across borders
A federal judge in New York has issued a civil contempt ruling against DT Holdings, Inc., an affiliate of Terra Towers Corp., after the company failed to turn over documents related to an ongoing criminal investigation in Guatemala. The order, issued on November 6, 2025, is tied to efforts to enforce an arbitration award of more than $300 million issued …
Verizon and SBA Communications announce long-term tower lease agreement
Verizon and SBA Communications have announced a new long-term agreement, securing a favorable framework that will drive significant cost certainty and support the continued expansion of Verizon’s world-class 4G and 5G services. This new agreement provides the flexibility needed for Verizon to be more nimble in managing its current infrastructure asset portfolio and deploying new technologies, ensuring coverage where customers …
Boost turns to bust: American Tower sues to stop DISH ditching tower rent; towercos could lose $9 billion
American Tower has taken DISH Wireless to federal court, warning that the company’s recent multibillion-dollar spectrum selloff does not excuse its continued obligation to pay rent on thousands of cell towers across the United States—and that the financial fallout for the tower industry could be immense. In a declaratory judgment complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District …
The great telecom invoice factoring illusion: How New York financier Carriox Capital fooled the money men
New York-based Carriox Capital II LLC and its related companies — once presented as agile financing vehicles in telecom receivables — are now buried in Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings that reveal a staggering $552 million secured debt and almost no remaining assets. According to court documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, HPS …
Tower technician fatally injured after fall from a 125-foot structure in Marion, Iowa
At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Friday, October 10, the Marion, Iowa, Fire Department was dispatched to a reported tower accident at 3602 N. 10th Street in Marion, where an individual had fallen from a communications tower and was found unconscious and bleeding. Wireless Estimator was able to identify today that the deceased was tower tech Dane Eugene Picknell, age 38, of Cambridge, …
Communications infrastructure theft and vandalism are more severe than presented in trade groups’ report
Two new reports, “Protecting Critical Communications Infrastructure” and “The Real Costs of Communications Outages Due to Infrastructure Theft or Vandalism,” released at the Third Telecom Industry Summit last week, reveal alarming data on the surge in attacks on telecom infrastructure. Between June 2024 and June 2025, the reports document 15,540 incidents, disrupting service for more than 9.5 million customers nationwide. The …
Wireless Estimator’s Blue Book reinvents how the industry connects to contractors, services and suppliers
For more than 15 years, the Wireless Estimator Blue Book™ Buyer’s Guide has been the telecom industry’s go-to resource for connecting carriers, general contractors, and site owners with the right vendors and crews. Now, it’s not just keeping pace with change — it’s redefining what a directory can do. With 1.27 million ad clicks and counting, the Blue Book continues …
T-Mobile’s incoming CEO, Srini Gopalan, brings fiber-first playbook; will towers lose out?
T-Mobile confirmed that Srini Gopalan will succeed Mike Sievert as CEO, effective November 1, 2025. The leadership change comes amid reports that Sievert, whose contract was set to run longer, was rumored to be resigning earlier than expected. He will move into the role of vice chair, while Gopalan, T-Mobile’s current COO and former member of Deutsche Telekom’s board, takes …
NTCH lawsuit against T-Mobile alleges $20 million in lost tower development revenues
NTCH, Inc. and several of its affiliates are pursuing a high-stakes lawsuit against T-Mobile USA, Inc. in King County Superior Court in Washington, accusing the wireless carrier of breaching a contractual commitment that was supposed to provide the tower builder with at least 100 new development opportunities under a Build to Suit Master Services Agreement (MSA) signed in 2015. NTCH …
Texas tower tech dies after fall at Little Rock antenna farm; sheriff identifies victim as Toby Cole
A Texas man died Friday after falling from a tower along Two Towers Road west of Little Rock, AR, an area known for its cluster of broadcast and communications structures on Shinall Mountain. The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched at about 2:09 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, to 19008 Two Towers Road. The office later identified …
Tower crews lose work as Boost’s open RAN ambitions as the nation’s fourth carrier collapse
The prospect of Boost Mobile emerging as an actual “fourth national carrier” has collapsed following EchoStar’s multi-billion-dollar spectrum sales to AT&T and SpaceX. Together, the transactions dismantle Dish/EchoStar’s original 5G greenfield buildout and confirm that the U.S. market will remain dominated by the Big Three—AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile—for the foreseeable future. AT&T deal: Spectrum sale and RAN takeover In late …
AT&T Mexico withholding rent puts $300M a year at risk for American Tower, clouding its cash flow
AT&T Mexico—a legally separate subsidiary from AT&T Mobility (U.S.) with its own master lease—has been withholding tower rent since early 2025, American Tower told investors last Friday in a late afternoon SEC filing. In 2024, AT&T Mexico contributed about $300 million of AMT tenant revenue, roughly 3% of AMT’s total property revenue. By contrast, AT&T Mobility (U.S.) accounts for approximately …
500-foot broadcast tower toppled, $500K in damage—but sentences seen as too lenient
Two Oklahoma residents received what many consider light sentences after a copper theft that collapsed a 500-foot FM tower and caused more than $500,000 in damage, knocking Payne Media Group’s K95.5 (KITX) off the air in January 2024. Prosecutors said Candice Marie Logan and Matthew Carl Wilson cut a guy-wire at the KITX site near Hugo in the early hours …
Cell tower legal showdown: Developers score wins in two out of three federal siting cases
Three separate rulings in New Hampshire, Virginia, and Florida over the past week have reshaped the legal landscape for wireless infrastructure deployment on the East Coast. From outright victories for developers to partial wins for a local government, the decisions highlight both the legal guardrails of the federal Telecommunications Act (TCA) and the consequences of procedural missteps by municipalities. Rapidan, …
SpaceX blasts Virginia’s $613M broadband plan as wasteful, biased against Starlink
SpaceX has accused the Commonwealth of Virginia of wasting hundreds of millions in federal broadband funds and rigging its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program in favor of high-cost fiber projects at the expense of faster, cheaper, and already available satellite service. In an August 13, 2025 letter to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), SpaceX …
