BROWSING: Towers

BELL ATLANTIC MOBILE, CROWN CASTLE FORM VENTURE

HOUSTON, BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Bell Atlantic Mobile and Crown Castle International Corp. announced an agreement to form a joint venture company that will own, operate and actively advance the leasing space on BAM's existing network of wireless towers throughout the country.Additionally, the joint venture company will...

AMERICAN TOWER TO BUILD TRITON PCSDEVELOPMENT SITES

BOSTON-American Tower Corp. and Triton PCS announced they entered into a contract in which American Tower will build 115 build-to-suit tower-development sites in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.In addition, Triton PCS has contracted American Tower's acquisition and zoning service for 175 sites in...

GAO REPORTS POSTAL TOWER PROGRAM `ON HOLD’

WASHINGTON-A Government Accounting Office report says the U.S. Postal Service has "put on hold" plans to expand an antenna-siting program, which could have significant impacts on efforts to get antenna-siting and enhanced 911 legislation passed next year.UniSite Inc., an independent tower company partnered with...

FCC EXAMINES Y2K IMPACTS ON TOWER LIGHTING

WASHINGTON-People flying New Year's Eve 1999 should wonder if their airplanes will be able to navigate safely if the pilots cannot see wireless antenna facilities-especially 200-foot towers.If the millennium bug strikes the electric power grid, the lighting on antenna towers is likely to fail.If...

E911 HEADS TO COURT

WASHINGTON-Marcia Spielholz, the California woman whose emergency 911 cellular phone call went unanswered in 1994 during an attempted auto theft in which she was shot in the face, plans to amend her class-action lawsuit against Los Angeles Telephone Co. next week by adding new...

AMERICAN TOWER BUYS BRACKET MASTER

BOSTON-American Tower Corp. has purchased Bracket Master Inc. for approximately $1.5 million.Bracket Master Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of tower hardware based in Jupiter, Fla., formed in 1994 to meet the growing demand for antenna-mounting hardware. American Tower owns and manages more than 3,000...

NATION BRIEFS

ADC Telecommunications Inc. completed its acquisition of Teledata Communications Ltd. for $15.75 per share, or about $200 million in cash.Omnipoint Communications Inc. launched commercial roaming with NPI Wireless of Traverse City, Mich. NPI operates Global System for Mobile communications services in the northern Michigan...

COMMUNITRONICS APPROVED FOR PAGING IN ALA.

DAPHNE, Ala.-Communitronics of America Inc. announced it received Federal Communications Commission approval to provide paging services at 152.630 MHz in Mobile, Ala.The licensed coverage area covers up to 16 million pops. Communitronics is building a new tower and transmitting station to begin offering service...

COMMSITE EXPANDS TOWER-BUY PROGRAM

VIENNA, Va.-Commsite International Inc. announced the expansion of its tower-acquisition program.Commsite's tower-acquisition program has shown robust growth by offering a program tailored for quick response, closing and liquidity for "mom and pop" tower owners, said the company. According to Timothy P. Haley, president and...

AMERICAN TOWER AIMS FOR 10,000 TOWERS

American Tower Corp. last week bolstered its leading position among independent tower companies when it announced plans to acquire TeleCom Towers L.L.C. and OmniAmerica Inc., the latter considered a major player in the tower industry.When completed, the mergers will add about 1,036 towers to...

WIRELESS WILL FACE SAME `NEW FEDERALISM’ CHALLENGE UNDER LIVINGSTON

WASHINGTON-While this week's election of Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.) to speaker of the House is not expected to dramatically change the course of telecom policy making in Congress, a wholesale shakeup in GOP leadership could alter the political dynamics of that process."We...

SOFTWARE COULD REDUCE SPACING NEEDED AT ANTENNA SITES

Collocation has evolved from something wireless carriers used to resist to something they do as a matter of course. The idea of collocation increasingly becomes important to independent tower companies, which rely heavily on collocation to bring in the revenues they need to sustain...

NEWS BRIEFS

Alltel Corp. said it acquired Armstrong Cellular Inc.'s 15-percent interest in a network the two companies operate in Charleston, W.Va. Alltel now has 100 percent control of the operation. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The company also said last month it launched...

MAPFACTORY AIMS TO CHART ITS WAY INTO INDUSTRY

The MapFactory, a Walnut Creek, Calif., company specializing in adding value to imaging and mapping products, has developed a product that could impact the way wireless carriers build out their networks.The company brings together vast amounts of information such as the heights of buildings...

ANI SITE TO MANAGE RENDA’S TOWERS

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-ANI Site Development announced it signed a new agreement to manage all of Renda Broadcasting Corp.'s broadcast towers.ANI manages more than 200 communications sites in the Southeast. Renda has towers in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia.

LEADERSHIP CHANGES COULD ALTER TELECOM VOTES

WASHINGTON-Well, the game is over and the fat lady has sung. But who won and what does it mean for the wireless telecommunications industry?The easy answer is that nothing has changed really. Indeed, since Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.)-ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee-won...

AMTA STRIVES TO BE THE SAME, BUT DIFFERENT

The main goal for the American Mobile Telecommunications Association is regulatory flexibility or more accurately-one-size-does-not-fit-all. AMTA President Alan Shark has been fighting the good fight with the Federal Communications Commission to convince it traditional specialized mobile radio is not the same thing as commercial...

NEXTEL COULD BE NEXT TO SELL TOWERS

NEW ORLEANS-Independent tower companies hoping to cash in on the anticipated sale of tower assets by wireless carriers still are waiting for the first big deal to set the standard for future purchase/lease-back arrangements.Many attendees at last week's 1998 Tower Industry Summit & Trade...

ISRAEL, PA’S CELLULAR MAPS TAKE SHAPE

NABLUS, West Bank-Many who conduct business in this often-troubled region say peace would come much more quickly if they took over the responsibility from politicians. Cooperation in the wireless telecommunications sector appears to support that testimony.When Palestine Telecommunications Co. P.L.C., or Paltel, launches its...

AAT TO MANAGE UP TOWER ACTIVITIES

EDISON, N.J.-AAT Communications Corp. will manage the marketing and collocation activities for Union Pacific Railroad Co.'s network of 1,200 towers located along its more 36,000 miles of railroad, under a new agreement signed by the companies, said AAT.Union Pacific has towers and rights of...

NEW SERVICES, COMMUNITY BACK LASH SPUR TOWER-INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION

Consolidation among heavyweights in the telecommunications industry, including some of the wireless sector's largest carriers, has grabbed the headlines during the last several months. Meanwhile, the tower industry has been experiencing a rapid consolidation of its own.Since the beginning of this month, American Tower...

TOWER INDUSTRY CONTINUES ITS BOOM AS DEMAND FOR SITES CLIMBS

NEW YORK-The current public capital crunch has slowed dramatically the buildout of some domestic wireless networks, but it hasn't changed the positive prospects for the wireless tower industry."We think there have been about 1,600 towers (total) awarded (by carriers) under build-to-suit contracts in the...

LCC, ALLEN TELECOM CANCEL SWAP PLANS

MCLEAN, Va. and BEACHWOOD, Ohio-LCC International Inc. and Allen Telecom Inc. decided not to swap LCC's test and measurement equipment and related software analysis tools business for the engineering, software and consulting business of Allen Telecom's Comsearch division.The companies said they re-evaluated the strategic...

IMPROVED GPS ACCURACY REVEALS PAST TOWER-SITING ERRORS

NEW YORK-Satellite Survey Systems Ltd., a Dallas company with roots in oil and gas exploration, has added another notch in its diversification belt by helping wireless companies pinpoint tower locations using global positioning systems.The company's endeavors are part of a trend in the tower-siting...