América Móvil’s tower move in Mexico
All may be quiet on the American tower front after last week’s big move from American Tower, but this week Latin American mobile operator América Móvil provided an update on its plans to spin its tower interests off into its own separate company in Mexico. CEO Daniel Hajj of América Móvil said the company is “very advanced in the tower spinoff process.” Shareholders will be filled in on the plan in April and hope to hit the ground running by May or June of this year. The only question at this point is whether the company will truly be treated as a new company or, since it has close ties to the already massive América Móvil, will it be subject to stricter regulations? Mexico officials and the company are still working out the details on that front.
This fledgling company will have a whopping 11,000 sites at the time of launch and compete with American Tower, which already has about 8,400 towers in Mexico.
In other América Móvil news, the company released its quarterly financial report this week with less than stellar results.
FCC fines GCI
In December we reported that the Federal Aviation Administration streamlined the process for Notices to Airmen, which was probably brought about by stories similar to the one that’s surfaced recently. General Communication was slapped with a $20,000 fine by the FCC when, during a routine inspection in Fairbanks, Alaska, it was discovered that an antenna there was not flashing the proper lights during the day time, and no one had notified the FAA of the outage. GCI did not dispute the citation, but asked that its fine be reduced since they fixed it upon being notified. The FCC denied the request.
Tower news quickies
• Landlord’s checklist for cell tower transfers
• Feedback (Part 2) from “Will the tower industry police itself?”
Regional/local tower news
- Proposed cell tower worries golf course neighbors in Fort Collins, Colo.
- Milpitas, Calif., Board of Education postpones vote on extending cell tower contracts
- Lookout Mountain, Tenn., working on final cell tower design
- Arlington, Ill., cell tower plan faces resistance
- Crystal Lake, Ill., cell tower agreement could bring $1.2 million
- Lewiston, N.Y., officials wrestling with cell tower fees
- Kimball, Neb., approves permit for cell tower
- Discussion of proposed cell tower delayed in Clintonville, Ohio
- Linwood, Minn., inks cell tower deal
