Vertical Bridge, the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure in the United States, today announced the promotion of two of its longest serving leaders to Executive Vice President. Johnny Crawford was named Executive Vice President of Development, and Bob Paige was appointed Executive Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Development. “Bob and Johnny have been leaders …
Lawsuit filed against Georgia city after its Council slights a Shriners’ site for T-Mobile
Municipal Communications of Atlanta, GA filed a lawsuit against Columbus, GA and its mayor and council members stating that it is violating federal law by blocking its requests to build a T-Mobile cell tower that’s necessary to improve coverage in the area near heavily trafficked I-185. Though T-Mobile already has 37 cell sites in Columbus, Municipal told a Georgia federal …
Union Wireless chooses TowerCo to market and manage its wireless tower assets
TowerCo has announced a partnership with Union, a fast growing regional wireless provider that serves the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Idaho. As an industry leader specializing in colocation, TowerCo will market and manage Union’s portfolio of 322 sites to the carriers and broadband service providers to access existing communication infrastructure in key areas for coverage and capacity. At …
Wireless infrastructure pioneer Van Thompson passes away
Van Thompson, a cell tower development pioneer, passed away quietly at his home in Annapolis, Maryland on January 5. He was 66. Thompson was known as a founding force in managing, developing and implementing wireless infrastructure in the mid-Atlantic region. He began his career in telecom in 1987 as a consultant purchasing right of way for fiber optics in Texas. …
AT&T expects a spring or summer start of their one climb strategy that will keep contractors busy
AT&T contractors are expected to be busy in late spring or early summer as AT&T uses single tower climbs to deploy two bands of new mid-band spectrum for 5G, allowing the carrier to simultaneously expand C-band and roll out its recently won 3.45 GHz. It is possible that the upgrade build will involve approximately 25,000 cell towers since AT&T CEO John …
Thirty-year-old tower tech passes after falling from 400-foot tower in Ontario
Canada, frequently identified as one of the safest countries for tower climbers, had a fatality yesterday when a 30-year-old tower technician fell to his death in the Township of Minden Hills, Ontario. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) reported that at approximately 11:30 a.m., the Haliburton Highlands OPP was contacted by Haliburton County Paramedic Services (EMS) for a worker who had …
Bogus BLS averages put larger wireless contractors at a greater risk of being red-flagged
Avetta and other compliance vendors continue to use the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data to initially assess the safety culture and performance of wireless contractors through metrics such as the Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) average. Compliance vendors red flag contractors if their TRIR exceeds the BLS’s current TRIR averages, even though they are aware …
Windy City Tower Techs resolves OSHA fatality investigation with zero citations relating to accident
Windy City Tower Techs, LLC (“Windy City”) suffered an unfortunate fatality incident on September 3, 2021 at a monopine telecommunications tower in Olympia Fields, Illinois. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) conducted a comprehensive investigation into the incident. Importantly, OSHA found no violations relating to the fatal accident. During its inspection, OSHA learned that the employee was not …
CTI Towers announces the appointment of CFO Tammy Wolfe
CTI Towers is one of the largest private tower companies in the US, and has been a portfolio company of Melody Investment Advisors LP (“Melody”), an alternative asset manager focused on telecommunications infrastructure investments, since 2020. CTI Towers owns and manages approximately 1,150 towers in 47 states. Lessors of CTI Towers assets include top wireless carriers AT&T, DISH, T-Mobile and …
DigitalBridge surpasses its fund target by over $2.3 billion in commitments
DigitalBridge Group, Inc. has announced that DigitalBridge Investment Management, the firm’s investment management platform, has closed its second flagship fund, DigitalBridge Partners II, LP, with $8.3 billion in commitments, surpassing its original target of $6.0 billion. The Fund received strong demand from a diverse, global group of new and existing investors, resulting in an over 100 percent re-up rate from …
DISH Chairman Ergen and FCC’s Carr added to NATE UNITE’s stellar lineup of keynotes and presenters
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association announced today that DISH Co-Founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will participate in a Q & A Keynote Fireside Chat at the NATE UNITE 2022 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The keynote session will be moderated by prominent industry analyst Jennifer Fritzsche, Head of North American Telecom and Digital Infrastructure …
DISH Network appoints John Swieringa as its new wireless prexy as pressures mount to launch in Las Vegas
DISH Network has named John Swieringa as President and Chief Operating Officer of DISH Wireless. In this expanded role, he will be responsible for all operational aspects of DISH’s wireless business including the deployment and management of DISH’s virtualized, O-RAN 5G broadband network. Swieringa also will continue to lead DISH’s retail wireless business, and oversee day-to-day wireless activities. The Sweiringa announcement comes at …
Verizon welcomes the new year with a fireworks display
On New Year’s Eve, firefighters responded to a cell tower that was on fire at West 2nd Street, City of Gulf Shores, AL. According to city officials, the fire was immediately extinguished and emergency service communications were not affected. The 150-foot monopole, constructed in 2006, is owned by Verizon and managed by American Tower Corp. It is unknown if maintenance …
Unionization of tower training company provides CWA with a foot in the door they intend to exploit
In the past few months, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has been quietly attempting to unionize wireless contractors and has made inroads with employees of two mid-sized companies, according to sources who have informed Wireless Estimator of the CWA’s efforts. Today, the CWA made its intentions known by spearheading their campaign with a press release announcing that workers at …
Only one tower was damaged during Kentucky tornados: FCC report
According to the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System’s (DIRS) report yesterday, only one cell site was out due to damage from the deadly tornadoes that devastated numerous Kentucky communities last weekend, destroying over 1,000 properties, including facilities of two industry manufacturers. Although there were an additional 9 cell sites out, 8 of them due to transport issues and 1 out …
DigitalBridge creates first scaled, independent tower company in Iceland through two acquisitions
Boca Raton, FL-based DigitalBridge Group, Inc. announced that funds affiliated with DigitalBridge Investment Management, the firm’s investment management platform, have completed the acquisition of the telecom tower portfolios of Sýn hf. (Sýn) and Nova hf. (“Nova”), two leading Icelandic mobile network operators (“MNOs”), creating ÍslandsTurnar. ÍslandsTurnar is the first independent tower company of scale in Iceland with national coverage to …
World Tower facilities demolished by tornado as neighbor Drake Lighting is mostly spared
President Joe Biden visited Mayfield, KY today, a town that was rendered unrecognizable after tornadoes brought death and destruction to the area over the weekend. Residents affected by the tragic event called for funds for recovery. During a press conference Biden pledged that federal aid would continue to flow and said that the damage was the worst that he had …
RF signage placement row heads to NJ court after landlord refuses T-Mobile site access
After a 24-year contractual relationship with a Brunswick, NJ building owner, T-Mobile Northeast LLC says in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey that 390 George Street Associates refuses to allow the carrier to perform modifications that are allowed in their lease and is prohibiting T-Mobile access to their rooftop equipment. In their complaint, T-Mobile requests …
24-year-old Nevada tower tech passes after a 140-foot fall in Washington — 2nd fatality in 3 weeks
Wireless Estimator has confirmed that a 24-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada tower technician, whose goal was to excel in his new career, has passed away after falling from a communications tower in Arlington, WA on Saturday afternoon at about 1:30 p.m. Michael Vasquez was a Broken Arrow Communications (Bacom) crew member working on an installation on a Crown Castle monopole when …
Foolish draft petition has a carrier telling NATE to ‘Shut up!’ and the matrix pricing problems will be resolved
Commentary — One carrier’s well-thought-out solution to NATE’s concern regarding untenable contractor matrix pricing that is crippling the nation’s wireless workforce can be capsuled in two words: ‘Shut Up!’ There are no legitimate arguments that matrix or model pricing shouldn’t be used in wireless construction unless it’s a project that requires different disciplines or presents unique labor or material-intensive requirements outside of …
