Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
AT&T infrastructure investment slows, contractor layoffs
It’s been a rough week for some tower crews working primarily on AT&T towers this week. RCR’s own Martha DeGrasse reported that Wall Street analyst were hearing bad news from AT&T contractors. TelForce Group reports that MasTec had to release at least 15 construction managers and project coordinators last week and others were transferred to a Sprint project.
But wait, it doesn’t end there. The very next day she had the unfortunate duty of reporting even more AT&T contractor layoffs, this time centered in Portland, Oregon. Roughly 30% of the Velocitel crews working on AT&T projects were laid off, including 4 LTE construction managers. According to her sources, there are plenty of site acquisitions happening in the area, but as far as construction goes, things are very slow for our friends in rainier parts of the country. Send some positive, new job finding vibes out to the West Coast this weekend.
Oi Vey SBA
World Cup isn’t the only bustling activity happening in Brazil lately. Last week we reported American Tower’s latest increase in presence in Brazil, adding thousands of new towers to its portfolio. SBA Communications decided to step up its Brazil game as well, announcing it is acquiring 1,641 new wireless sites from Oi. This isn’t the company’s first Oi acquisition. If you’ll remember they purchased over 2,000 towers earlier this year, and roughly 2,000 in 2013. SBA says it will not only continue to acquire towers in Brazil, but also build new towers to increase coverage. Analysts say Brazil’s subscriber density per tower is around four times higher than in the US.
Apropos of nothing other than the fact it’s great, here’s a video from Henkels & McCoy of a cell tower antenna installation:
Regional/Local Cell Tower News
- Cedar Rapids, IA church gets cell tower requests
- Verizon takes Middle Paxton, PA to federal court in cell tower fight
- Winston-Salem, NC planning board wants to tweak cell tower regulations
- Plan for stealth cell tower moves forward in Meriden, CT despite neighbors’ opposition
- Board nixes 64-ft cell tower in Santa Fe, NM
- Scarborough, ME cell tower expansion questioned
- Police: Thieves raid Parsippany, NJ cell tower
- Neighborhood dials up fight against cell tower plans in Columbus, OH
- Verizon service cell tower to be erected near Blair, NE
- Cell tower may be erected in Caln, PA
- Sports center gets OK’d, cell tower approved in Orange County, CA
- Planning board sticks with current cell tower height in Sylva, NC
- Proposed cell tower in Athens, AL causes public disconnect
- Readington, NJ denies cell tower for balloon fest
- Cell tower planned for Harwinton, CT
- Myrtle Beach, SC city leaders work on law to put in more cell towers
