HOUSTON—The nation’s second largest tower company appears to be closing in on its losses, as Crown Castle International Corp. reported first-quarter net losses of just $6.7 million, a sharp decline form its year-ago net loss of $126.9 million.
CCI’s posted site-rental revenue of $161.9 million, up more than 14 percent on last year’s $141.5 million.
“We had an excellent quarter, exceeding the outlook that we provided for the site rental revenue, site rental gross margin, adjusted [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] and recurring cash flow,” stated John Kelly, president and chief executive officer of CCI. “Our U.S. wireless carrier customers continue to enhance their voice and data offerings by adding equipment to our U.S. towers at a rate higher than we previously expected.”
Looking forward, CCI said it expects second-quarter revenues of between $167 million and $169 million, ending the year with revenues of between $665 million and $675 million.
CCI operates more than 12,000 towers nationwide and launched a DVB-H mobile TV subsidiary, Modeo L.L.C., in January. Modeo plans to use CCI’s network for towers and dedicated spectrum to compete with Aloha Partners L.P subsidiary Hiwire and Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFlo. Modeo has said it plans to launch commercial DVB-H services in up to 30 U.S. markets by next year, and that a network in New York City will be up and running sometime this year.
Wall Street barely blinked at CCI’s earnings, as the company’s stock traded down just 8 cents at $32.35 per share during mid-day trading.
