American Tower Corp.’s Indian subsidiary is buying approximately 20,000 communications towers from Vodafone India Ltd. and Idea Cellular Ltd. for $1.2 billion. ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Ltd. is buying the sites and expects to generate roughly $320 million in property revenue from the assets during the first full year of ownership, American Tower said today. In both deals, the companies …
AT&T and Verizon threaten the big three towercos with a new Tillman 200 tower scheme
In a move clearly positioned as a threat to major tower owners to lower their lease rates, AT&T, Verizon and Tillman Infrastructure announced a joint agreement today to build hundreds of cell towers, with the potential for significantly more new site locations in the future. Last year during an investors conference, Bill Hogg, AT&T’s president of technology operations, said that …
CommScope’s AT&T antenna orders is first real sign of FirstNet’s deployment
In March, Barclays said that AT&T could start deploying the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) as early as June, but the announcement was one of many short-lived guesstimates. However, according to CommScope, they have received antenna orders from AT&T for FirstNet. In a Nov. 1 earnings call with analysts, Mark A. Olson, EVP & CFO of CommScope Holding Company said, …
Either there’s a shortage of COWs in Puerto Rico or FCC data
In order for Americans to experience a total solar eclipse of the sun on Aug. 21 and record it on their cell phones, carriers rolled out dozens of Cell on Wheels and Cell on Light Trucks for the two-minute event, but can’t seem to provide Puerto Rico with any more than 14 COWs and COLTs, according to FCC data, as …
Media is hoodwinked on ‘new’ federal Crown Castle siting lawsuit
A press conference was held Thursday morning in front of the Nassau County, N.Y. Supreme Court building announcing that a lawsuit has been filed by several Long Island homeowners challenging what they believe is Crown Castle’s installation of hundreds of unregulated and untested wireless facilities. Broadcast, print and digital media were there and sucked up the staged presentation with CBS2’s …
No injuries reported in Nebraska broadcast tower collapse
No one was injured this morning about 8 a.m. when a 500-foot broadcast tower collapsed in Lincoln, Neb. at 4100 Industrial Ave. The cause of the collapse is unknown, but two witnesses told Channel 8 Eyewitness News they heard a couple of popping noises and the tower just fell. Several TV stations broadcast from the structure and it also has …
Towercos headed for some stiff competition with formation of Lendlease Towers
When Lendlease recently entered the U.S. tower market in May with its purchase of Parallel Infrastructure’s 450 towers, it is likely that major tower operators viewed the acquisition as a missed opportunity and another competitive thorn in their rosy future, and possibly shrugged off Lendlease Americas CEO Denis Hickey’s statement that he would expand those holdings. True to his promise, …
Violent Florida contractor charged in $16 million DOD bribery and kickback conspiracy
Oct. 12, 2017 – Update and Correction: Timothy Donelson, who was arrested on Oct. 4 for participating in a bribery and kickback conspiracy was employed by Level 3 Communications, according to his LinkedIn page, during the period when he allegedly co-conspired with three other individuals who are charged with the issuance of almost $16 million in fraudulent invoices. Donelson’s arrest record identified that …
Tata closing its doors will take a nice chunk out of American Tower’s income
In response to press reports that Tata Group is going to close down its India-based Tata Teleservices Ltd. (TTL), American Tower Corporation (ATC) today announced that the carrier accounted for approximately $80 million, or 5% of the REIT’s consolidated property revenues, including approximately $32 million of pass-through revenue. In addition, TTL accounted for approximately $40 million in gross margin for …
Joint agency team assesses Puerto Rico cell tower damage
A team from FEMA and Joint Force Land Component Command assessed damage to cellular and radio towers today caused by Hurricane Maria throughout the island of Puerto Rico According to Spc. Gabrielle Weaver, the team assessed several towers via helicopter in an effort to reestablish communication to the island. They are trying to make a list of which one is …
Towercos use the power of the plug and courts to get lease bills paid
While the Empire State Building Realty Trust (ESRT) used the New York Supreme Court this week to win its lawsuit against radio station Pacifica WBAL for unpaid tower rent of $1.8 million plus attorney’s fees, towercos in India owed millions of dollars by Reliance Communications are cutting the carrier’s power to force them to ante up unpaid lease payments that …
Lack of on-site generators, COWs, contributes to Puerto Rico’s still horrendous cell service
After Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic devastation of Puerto Rico’s cell sites, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai directed his staff last week to reach out to American Tower, SBA Communications and Crown Castle “to see how we can work together to address Puerto Rico’s communications needs,” However, according to over a dozen industry professionals interviewed by Wireless Estimator, the answers are already known …
High angle rescue brings down two tower techs in North Carolina
Two workers had to be rescued after being unable to get down from an approximately 125-foot Crown Castle monopole in south Charlotte, N.C. Thursday night. According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, two techs were working on the tower, located at 1800 Rama Rd. when one of the men became ill. The other tower climber proceeded to help his coworker, but couldn’t assist …
Three Tower King techs killed in Florida after gin pole rigging failure
UPDATE: Sept. 29, 2017 – Authorities have released the names of the three technicians who fell to their deaths Wednesday when a gin pole failed during an antenna installation project in Miami Springs, Fla. The men were identified as Marcus Goffena, 31, from Sidney, Ohio, Brachton Barber, 23, of Longwood, Fla., and Benito Rodriguez, 35, of Tampa, Fla. Brachton is …
FCC says wireless carriers remain competitive, but not by building new cell sites
Carriers captured high grades for competitiveness, according to the FCC’s Twentieth Mobile Wireless Competition Report, an annual analysis of whether there is effective rate rivalry with wireless operators Although the 34-page report provides a wealth of additional information to support competitiveness, according to Jonathan Adelstein, President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), anybody who has turned on a …
Puerto Rico’s horrendous cell site outages complicated by generator/fuel theft concerns
Puerto Rico’s cell service is still devastated today with over 91% of its sites out of service, basically the same as yesterday. The horrific outages caused by Hurricane Maria are also being felt in the U.S. Virgin Islands where 60.4% of cell sites are out of service, slightly down from yesterday’s 61.3%. In San Juan, P.R., subscribers saw a poor, …
Carriers’ cell site outages to the FCC will not match their marketing hype
Commentary Although the nation’s four major carriers are reporting cell site outages in affected areas of Hurricane Irma to the FCC, and the Commission is providing daily compilations for a snapshot in time, such as today’s outages in Florida of 13.4%, carrier public relations officials are beginning to spin their hardened site assets at speeds off the Saffir-Simpson scale. On …
Rivada teams up with U.S. Cellular to entice New Hampshire to opt-out of FirstNet
Rivada Networks announced this morning that New Hampshire’s first responders “deserve a dedicated, purpose-built and statewide public-safety broadband network, and Rivada has teamed up with U.S. Cellular to ensure that mission is accomplished.” In Sept. 2016, Rivada Networks, Herndon, Virg., signed a no-cost, no-obligation contract with the state of New Hampshire to develop an alternative radio access network plan for …
Harvey-crippled cell sites are on the mend with 19% back as FCC adds nine new counties
According to the FCC, there are 3.8% of the cell sites out of service in the affected area of Hurricane Harvey, down from 4.2% yesterday. There are no counties with greater than 40% of cell sites out of service. There are no cell sites reported out of service in La. Since the peak of 365 cell sites out of service …
Hardened sites and resupply keep downed cell sites from Hurricane Harvey at 365
Even though flood waters are rising, there was only one additional cell site out of service today from yesterday as a result of Hurricane Harvey’s relentless rainfall in Texas and Louisiana. Carriers are attributing it to hardened cell sites and their disaster recovery plans that have intensified following previous hurricanes such as Sandy in 2012. There are 4.7% of the cell …
