American Tower Corporation and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) announced today that they have signed a new overarching lease agreement, facilitating Verizon’s on-going 5G network deployment across American Tower’s extensive U.S. portfolio of communications sites, with over 11,000 of them on Verizon towers that American Tower acquired the rights in 2015 to lease and operate through 2045. The agreement …
Harmoni Towers’ acquisition of Parallel’s structures raises them to U.S.’s second largest private towerco
Harmoni Towers (“Harmoni”), a portfolio company of Palistar Capital LP (“Palistar”), an alternative asset manager focused on mission-critical communications infrastructure, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Parallel Infrastructure (“Parallel”), a leading tower platform and build-to-suit provider, from funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE: APO) (“Apollo”). Terms were not disclosed. The transaction creates the seventh-largest …
NATE, American Tower Corporation and MILLERCO Host U.S. Senator Roger Wicker
NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association and member companies American Tower Corporation and MILLERCO hosted U.S. Senator Roger Wicker on a communications tower site visit in Gulfport, Mississippi yesterday. Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes also attended the event. During the site visit, Senator Wicker and Mayor Hewes toured the communications tower compound with event participants to learn about all the on-site …
T-Mobile and Starlink link up to ‘end mobile dead zones’
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that their companies are working to “end mobile dead zones” and will launch a new mobile service enabled by Starlink second-generation satellites and T-Mobile bandwidth. Sievert and Musk announced coverage to bring cell phone connectivity everywhere. Leveraging Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, and T-Mobile’s wireless network, …
Newly minted tower techs will receive their training on IsoTruss’s carbon fiber towers
IsoTruss, Inc., an engineering, design, and manufacturing services provider, today announced the donation of two patented IsoTruss® carbon fiber cell towers to the Learning Alliance Corp. (LAC) center located in Tampa, FL. The donation will support LAC’s workforce development initiative in training cell tower climbers and technicians for the wireless telecom infrastructure industry. LAC partners with businesses in the wireless industry, which …
QualTek contests Washington regulators’ $12,000 fine for safety violations following employee’s death
QualTek Wireless LLC of Blue Bell, PA, is contesting two serious Washington State Labor and Industries (LNI) safety violations issued after an employee fell to his death in Arlington, WA, on December 4, 2021. Tower technician Michael Vasquez, 24, was working on an installation on a Crown Castle monopole when he suddenly fell from about the 140-foot level, according to authorities. The …
Vertical Bridge achieves carbon neutrality for third consecutive year
Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC, the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure in the United States, today announced that it has realized 100 percent carbon neutrality for the third consecutive year. The Company began a proactive review of its environmental footprint in 2020 which resulted in its initial CarbonNeutral® Certification that year and the subsequent renewal in 2021. “U.S. …
Carlyle partners with ‘disruptive’ Tillman, committing up to $1 billion to accelerate investments in US towers
Global investment firm Carlyle announced that funds managed by its Global Infrastructure platform have committed up to $1 billion to partner with Tillman Global Holdings to accelerate its investments in Tillman Infrastructure, a leading privately held cell tower platform in the United States. Since its founding in 2016, Tillman Infrastructure has become one of the largest providers of build-to-suit tower …
Stainless marks a storied 75 years of pioneering leadership in the broadcast industry
FDH Infrastructure Services, LLC (FDH), a leader in engineering investigations of critical structures and developer of global technology solutions, is proudly commemorating the 75th anniversary of Stainless, its broadcast division. Officially incorporated on July 24, 1947, Stainless has been pioneering innovations in tower design, fabrication, erection, modifications, safety, and reliability – holding the longest and most distinguished history in the …
Tower titan Michael T.N. Fitch passes, leaving the industry with a more stable environment
Michael T.N. Fitch passed away on July 22, 2022, leaving behind a rich legacy of assisting towercos and carriers in advancing infrastructure siting. Fitch spent the first 20 years of his extensive career at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he advanced from Staff Attorney to Division Chief, Bureau Chief, and ultimately Senior Legal and International Advisor to the Chairman. …
Offering no standards guidance, CWA says safety bulletin ‘threat’ has the tone of an ‘irate boss’
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) Tower Climbers Union has jumped on the carabiner bandwagon of concern regarding a recent NATE advisory bulletin on July 20, 2022, that stated, “Carabiners are NOT intended for rigging applications involving material handling and overhead lifting,” after a LinkedIn article said that the ANSI A10.48 standard allows carabiners to be used if they are “specifically classified by the manufacturer …
Use of a carabiner for load lifting provided varied responses but client requirements still reign
NATE’s July 20, 2022 industry advisory bulletin that carabiners are not intended for rigging applications involving material handling and overhead lifting saw a slew of Facebook comments in the past six days that had some posters defending the use of carabiners for those purposes that are largely prohibited by major tower owners whose structures tower techs are erecting or providing …
Topping estimates, all Valmont segments are up in Q2 financial report but telecommunications shines
Shares of Valmont Industries (VMI) hit their highest level in more than a month, gaining 7.8% to $256.53 in noontime trading after the infrastructure and agricultural solutions provider reported Q2 2022 results that beat estimates and raised its FY guidance. In the past five days, the stock has seen a rise of $31.59, a 14.08% increase. Valmont said that it had record sales …
Contractors warned using carabiners for material rigging applications could suspend future work
Industry stakeholders have issued a warning that no matter how strong a carabiner is, companies using them for material handling and overhead lifting could see a loss of work when their jobs are shut down. NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association said today that on July 13, 2022, the organization became aware of an article titled “Rigging is a Dynamic …
Death of a tower worker falling off a 300-foot Crown Castle guyed tower proves to be incorrect
News reports on Monday described an industry fatality when a tower technician fell off a guyed tower that he was working on in Anderson, SC. However, the reporting was incorrect. TV station WSPA said a man working on a tower in Anderson County had been found dead and cited the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) as stating the man fell …
Placing pipe bombs at AT&T and Verizon locations could result in a ‘life’ sentence for Michigan man
A Whittemore, Michigan man might spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to two separate criminal cases related to the placement of explosive packages outside cellphone stores in Cheboygan and Sault Ste Marie and threatening to destroy cell sites. John Douglas Allen pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Thomas Ludington in Bay City, Michigan. …
Northleaf to acquire a 40 percent interest in Vodafone’s New Zealand tower business for $1.1 billion
Northleaf Capital Partners (Northleaf), a leading global private markets investment firm, today announced that funds managed by Northleaf will acquire a 40% interest in Aotearoa Towers Limited (Aotearoa) a mobile tower infrastructure business, from Vodafone New Zealand Limited (Vodafone). The completion of this transaction will create New Zealand’s largest independent tower company, with approximately 1,500 wholly-owned towers covering 98% of …
In an early morning fire, a Crown Castle tower gets ‘lit up like a Christmas tree’
A 162-foot self-supporting multi-tenant cell tower became engulfed in flames early this morning in Seattle, WA near the busy intersection of I-90 and I-5 south of downtown in the International District. According to Seattle Fire Department Chief Geoff Wall, the fire that was reported at 3:00 a.m. was in one place on the tower when firefighters arrived but then changed …
A reverse stock split is oftentimes cautionary, but DigitalBridge Group says it’s all part of the grand plan
A reverse stock split oftentimes signals that a company is trying to stay listed on major exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange, where a company’s shares are required to not trade below $1 for 30 consecutive days. NYSE-traded DigitalBridge Group announced yesterday that within the next three months the company expects to have a reverse stock split in …
Tower painter runs afoul of Maryland residents and businesses being showered with lead paint chips
For almost three weeks, a Nebraska painting contractor was prepping a 997-foot guyed tower in Woodberry, MD, to be repainted by either pressure washing or grinding off existing layers of paint on the structure, according to residents. In the process, paint chips, some as large as a palm of a hand, have rained down from the candelabra structure on residential …
