Progress report from NATE
The National Association of Tower Erectors issued an update on the national wireless skills-based training standard discussed last year to be put into place this year. The task force has completed development of a training standard that outlines the minimum competencies and...
An Arizona-based company is working with major wireless infrastructure player Crown Castle to strengthen three Southern California towers using an innovative new product.
QuakeWrap Inc. founder Mo Ehsani, professor emeritus of civil engineering at the University of Arizona, told RCR Wireless News that one of...
The tower industry continues to offer excellent returns to companies that own and operate cell towers, but the tower construction business may be under some pressure.
Crown Castle merges into REIT
Tower giant Crown Castle is moving forward with its plan to merge the entire company...
Crown Castle
Crown Castle said that third quarter revenue rose 24% to $930 million, while operating profit (EBITDA) increased 21% to $533 million. The company continues to invest in new towers, but is also returning more cash to shareholders. Crown Castle will increase its annual...
FCC, Department of Labor launch TIRAP at workshop
After talking about it for weeks, the Federal Communications Commission (in conjunction with the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) workshop, titled "Tower Climber Safety and Injury Protection" happened this past week. Many industry...
Americans want mobile broadband, and they want good jobs with potential for growth. The wireless industry can deliver both, but only if adequate training is available for the workforce.
Department of Labor, FCC announce wireless apprenticeship program
Right now, thousands of wireless infrastructure jobs are going...
American Tower told analysts last week that it could have an interest in the Verizon Wireless towers if the carrier does decide to sell. The tower portfolio is not officially on the market, but Verizon has reportedly hired the same investment bank that helped...
Next week the wireless industry converges in Chicago for HetNet Expo. Panelists at the show include leading analysts and executives from the distributed antenna systems world as well as a some noteworthy small cell experts.
Hetnet update
Mobile subscribers want reliable, homogeneous coverage, which is enabled...
Verizon Communications has hired the same investment bank that helped AT&T and T-Mobile US sell their towers to Crown Castle, according to Bloomberg. New York's TAP Advisors is an investment bank that specializes in tower transactions and has broad expertise in wireless. Two of...
Verizon considers divesting tower assets
Last year we reported on Crown Castle's huge deal with AT&T; the tower giant bought almost 10,000 towers for $4.85B. Apparently this was food for thought for Verizon Communications' CFO Fran Shammo. He's gone on record saying AT&T's move was...
In infrastructure news this week, Sprint's spending is in the spotlight, Verizon's towers may be for sale, Alcatel-Lucent has a major new contract, and Rackspace is going it alone.
Infrastructure News
Sprint spending outlook
Sprint will focus the deployment of its 2.5 GHz spectrum assets in urban...
Crown Castle buys fiber assets
Crown Castle has acquired roughly 800 miles of fiber in Maryland, northern Virginia and Delaware through the purchase of 24/7 Mid-Atlantic Network. Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche of Wells Fargo notes that the tower giant has previously expressed interest in operating its...
Stadium DAS deployments continue
Infrastructure providers say the DAS RFPs keep coming from public venues, especially sports arenas. This week JMA Wireless said that Crown Castle will deploy JMA's Teko distributed antenna system at Rutgers University's High Point Solutions Stadium.
The Rutgers DAS will be ready...
The U.S. government is looking at a way to raise billions in tax revenue, but it could come at the expense of some tower companies. A tax reform bill drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee would change the rules companies must follow...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
OSHA cites S&S for W.Va. collapse
You'll likely recall when we reported on a tragic tower collapse that injured two and claimed two lives in February. Paperwork must be...
Distributed antenna systems provide connectivity behind the scenes, out of sight, even underground in some cases, and at times they have been as hard to find in corporate financial results as they are in some of the venues where they're deployed. But that's starting to change....
The Mobile Minute is sponsored by SpiderCloud Wireless.
Crown Castle sees strong carrier spending, adds small cells
Tower giant Crown Castle International (CCI) reported second quarter revenues of $916.3 million, up 25% from the year-ago quarter. The company noted continuing network investment by all four major...
Crown Castle oDAS in Utah
Utah's Department of Transportation expects to be able to monitor weather and traffic in Little Cottonwood Canyon, thanks to a new distributed antenna system it is installing with Crown Castle along Utah's Route 210. Eleven antenna poles will be connected...
SBA Communications (SBAC) said today that it is acquiring 1,641 more wireless sites in Brazil from Oi. Oi will lease space on the towers from SBA after the transaction closes, but SBA will have the right to lease space to other carriers as well....
As the nation's top four carriers work to offer nationwide, high-speed data service, more cell towers are now supporting multiple carriers. But co-location is not enough; operators and tower companies say new towers are needed in many locations.
“We are building more towers today than...
In infrastructure news this week, Ericsson is diversifying its leadership team, and tower companies appear unfazed by the prospect of carrier consolidation.
Ericsson appointments
Ericsson has added three new members to its global leadership team, two of whom are women. Each of the new executives will...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Just as we expected, this week's PCIA Wireless Infrastructure Show saw the tower companies more vocal than they have been in a while. This week's cell tower...
ORLANDO, Fla. – Surging mobile data demand means that wireless operators need to add coverage and capacity to their networks, and that often means co-locating a cell site on a tower occupied by one of their competitors.
"Volume and demand for co-locations and new towers...
Orlando, Fla. – Leaders from the nation's three largest tower companies took the stage to kick off PCIA's 2014 Wireless Infrastructure Show. Crown Castle International, American Tower and SBA Communications all projected a continuation of current growth trends. Specifically, the group highlighted network densification...
