American Tower had a strong first quarter, driven by LTE rollouts and continued network investment from the four major U.S. carriers. The company’s total revenue grew 15% year-over-year to $802.7 million for the quarter.
Jim Taiclet, American Tower’s CEO, said that there is “robust demand for tower space.”
“Leading the charge toward pervasive 4G services are our four major U.S. tenants, who we believe will need to substantially upgrade their existing networks to meet the capacity and elevated signal quality required to deliver services such as LTE video and voice over IP,” Taiclet added.
American Tower’s domestic segment for rental and management grew almost 6%, and represents 64% of its total revenue. The segment did include two one-time items, a tenant billing settlement of $6 million and a lease termination settlement of $96 million. Operating profit for the quarter was up 7%, with an operating profit margin of 78%.
Internationally, American Tower saw rental and management revenue jump by almost 33% to $261.8 million, about 33% of its total revenues.
The company did see an overall loss in net income, from $221 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $171 million. American Tower said this was “primarily attributable to the $35.3 million loss on retirement of long-term obligations related to the refinancing of the company’s $1.75 billion securitization and a year-over-year decline in unrealized foreign currency gains of $33.7 million.” Operating income was up almost 10% year-over-year.
Aviat Networks
Also in infrastructure results for the quarter, microwave backhaul provider Aviat Networks improved its revenue year-over-year, bumping up from $111.6 million to $118.3 million.
Aviat had a $1.7 million loss on discontinued operations, including its WiMax business; with net income from its continuing operations at $1.2 million. The company reported North American revenue of $52.9 million for its fiscal third quarter, up from $42.6 million a year ago and also up sequentially from $41.4 million. International revenue was down from $69 million in the year-ago period to $65.4 million, and down from the previous quarter’s $87.6 million figure.
Michael Pangia, president and CEO of Aviat, said that the revenues were driven by a seasonally strong second quarter and good performance in Africa and North America. “We expect demand for mobile connectivity to be a significant growth driver for the microwave backhaul industry in the geographic markets that we serve,” he added.
The company announced in February that it had won orders worth more than $10 million to provide microwave backhaul for public safety in an unspecified major U.S. metropolitan area.
