Earlier this month, Paul Eisenberg and Michael Lifland, former Co-Presidents of Repeater Communications Group, LLC and Division Presidents of InSite Wireless Group, LLC announced the formation of RCG Tower Group, LLC. This new venture, similar to Eisenberg and Lifland’s prior collaborations, specializes in generating triple net lease revenue streams for landlords by leasing, developing, acquiring and operating co-located rooftop, in-building …
FBI shelling out $5,000 reward for info about sabotage of Texas communications towers
The Dallas Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Wichita Falls Police Department are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the individual(s) responsible for the damage caused to two communications towers in Wichita Falls, Texas. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual …
Long Island town believes it has the right to deny applications for nodes with ugly antennas
The Town of Hempstead in Long Island, NY, last week aggressively replied to a summary judgment bid from Crown Castle that accused Hempstead of unfairly blocking the towerco from building 48 DAS nodes. In their response, Hempstead said that on January 18, 2017, Crown Castle submitted applications for the first 14 of 48 DAS nodes in the town’s right-of-way. The …
Verizon signs C-band deals with Crown Castle and SBA Communications
Verizon inked deals with Crown Castle and SBA Communications, two vertical realtors already hosting Verizon infrastructure equipment, to speed deployment of C-band equipment in preparation for the launch of 5G Ultra Wideband and fixed wireless broadband service on this newly acquired spectrum. Verizon secured an average of 161 MHz of C-band spectrum nationwide in the recent FCC auction, which will allow Verizon to …
Early vertical realtor David Grain pulls together $3.75 billion in investment funding
Washington, D.C.-based Grain Management, a leading private investment firm focused on broadband technology and the global communications sector, announced today that it has closed on $3.75 billion in funding the past year, exceeding its targets for purchase of spectrum and other investments. Grain participated in the Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 107 (“C-Band Auction”), the largest auction of mid-band 5G spectrum …
American Tower shocks industry analysts with its planned acquisition of China Tower for $17.4 billion
Boston-based American Tower Corp. (ATC) is close to inking an agreement to buy China Tower Corp. Ltd. for $17.4 billion, a huge deal that will see ATC acquiring China Tower’s 2.2 million towers, expanding ATC’s 186,000 worldwide towers by 1,100 percent, according to a Forbes report today. The well-kept secret took the industry by surprise, and analysts are still trying …
From monopoles to barber poles, NWSA adds a new certification to buoy lack of broadband funding
President Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion plan yesterday to rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure dubbed the American Jobs Plan, with $100 billion earmarked to build universal high-speed broadband infrastructure. However, the White House did not say how they plan to move the package through congress, nor provide a timeline on when they want it passed. Earlier this month, 30 …
Lack of training kills a high school day laborer climber and his employer claims it was his own fault
Lakaram Karanjeet was working part-time for Rise & Rise Wireless, Inc. while he was in high school. He died on June 28, 2019 when he fell from this New Jersey 150-foot monopole. An investigation by Wireless Estimator into a lawsuit brought against multiple defendants exposes a wireless construction contractor that had no safety programs in place, few owned assets and …
Plaintiffs settle for $3.2 million in 2018 Missouri tower collapse that killed company owner
Missouri State University and other defendants have reached a $3.2 million settlement in a 2018 deadly television tower collapse in Fordland, Missouri. The Springfield News-Leader reports the university’s attorney, Rachael Dockery, notified the school’s governing board of a “global settlement” in all the lawsuits filed about the incident. According to court documents, on March 10, 2021, a letter was presented …
Ice isn’t nice to century-old Champaign, Illinois self-supporting tower
A 175-foot self-supporting tower collapsed Monday afternoon about 2:15 p.m. off of Meridian Drive near North Duncan Road in Champaign, IL. The tower is owned by Alliance Communications and company owner Stu Toft informed Wireless Estimator that the four-legged base sections, 115 feet, are about 100 years old. They originally were on the banks of the Mississippi River and were then relocated to Champaign. …
Verizon ponies up a whopping $45B for C-band licenses
The Federal Communications Commission has announced the winning bidders and the final bid totals in Auction 107—commonly referred to as the C-band auction with Verizon (Cellco Partnership) pledging over $45 billion for 3,511 licenses. In Auction 107 net winning bids totaled $81,114,481,921 and gross winning bids totaled $81,168,677,645. Twenty-one bidders won all of the available 5,684 licenses. “It is essential …
Crown Castle sues after it’s told that its landlords have to agree to not build a competitive structure
Crown Castle Towers, AT&T, and Sprint have brought a federal lawsuit against the Town of Riverhead, N.Y., the Town Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Board and the Town’s building administrator for alleged “unreasonable delays” and “unsupportable effective denials” of their application to erect a 120-foot monopole. The template nature of the complaint, in part, is similar to the many …
SBA inks a master lease agreement with DISH for its 5G network
DISH and SBA Communications Corporation today announced a new long-term master lease agreement providing DISH access to SBA’s extensive nationwide portfolio of wireless communication sites. The announcement builds upon DISH’s continued progress in acquiring access to the essential infrastructure needed to deploy its greenfield 5G network coast to coast. As part of the agreement, DISH will lease towers from SBA, …
Three tower techs rescued after being stranded in Utah’s Oquirrh Mountains
Update: February 23, 2021 – The technician that was taken to the hospital with hypothermia was responding to a maintenance issue for a tower site on Mt. Vision, about three road miles southeast of Nelson Peak and at thousand feet lower in elevation that transmits programming for KBYU-FM and KBYU-FM HD-1 and KBYU-FM HD-2. The company he is employed by is BYU …
Seven new tower agreements signed by DISH as ATC and SBA await word on their offers
As DISH constructs the nation’s first cloud-native, Open RAN-based 5G wireless network, the company announced today it has signed seven new tower agreements. These agreements, with Harmoni Towers, Mobilite, Parallel Infrastructure, Phoenix Tower International (PTI), Tillman Infrastructure, Tower Ventures and Vogue Towers, provide DISH access to more than 4,000 towers and wireless infrastructure assets coast to coast. The vendors will also …
Verizon to double the number of its mmWave sites this year
To take over more of the country’s competitive landscape, Verizon said it will be making investment in mobile networks for the expansion of 5G Ultra Wideband in new and existing markets, the densification of the wireless network to manage impending traffic demands, and the continuous installation of the carrier’s fiber infrastructure across the US. During its Q4 earnings report, Verizon …
DC Judge questions the existence of FDA working groups cited in FCC’s RF exposure order
A D.C. Circuit panel judge yesterday, during oral arguments, appeared unconvinced of the Federal Communications Commission’s support of their findings that cell phones and other connected devices pose no risks to human health. The Environmental Health Trust, Children’s Health Defense, Consumers for Safe Cell Phones and ten individuals filed a lawsuit against the FCC for review of the Commission’s order. …
Geo catch puts California man behind bars for Verizon cell site batteries theft
A 32-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stealing four deep-cycle batteries which were used to power a San Bernardino, California Verizon cell tower site, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. On January 14, a suspect cut two padlocks to access the cell towner site at 17101 State 330 Highway. Unbeknownst to the thief, the batteries were equipped with …
Maine city and its planning board’s monopole siting spat could result in $1,000-a-day contempt fines
Bay Communications III LLC of Mansfield, Massachusetts wants to erect a 120-foot monopole on 182 Camden Street in Rockland, Maine and has had to resort to asking a federal court to find the city and its planning board in contempt of court for failing to follow through on a negotiated settlement reached in a November 12, 2020 U.S. District Court …
NATE requests COVID-19 vaccination priority status for industry’s technician workforce
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association has sent letters to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Governors Association to request that the telecom industry’s technicians be accorded priority status in the COVID-19 vaccination hierarchy the CDC has recommended and that states are now tasked with distributing. The NATE letters make …
