Towercos Stand Up to Havoc in Puerto Rico

The three publicly-traded tower companies, American, Crown Castle and SBA all have a substantial footprint of sites in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. American Tower and SBA spoke with Inside Towers last week to give their assessment of the damage and their efforts in trying to turn chaos back into order.
 
American Tower
“Of the sites we’ve been able to gain access to and inspect, it appears that the structural integrity of our towers has held,” Matt Peterson, Vice President, Communications, American Tower told Inside Towers. “However, a substantial amount of the carrier customer equipment on the towers and at the sites is badly damaged. This damage to carrier equipment and the loss of electrical power has resulted in very few cell sites being operational. American Tower has resources on the ground now who are helping with recovery efforts, performing full site audits on our 118 towers and identifying priority projects. Peterson said they are in active discussions with all of their customers to determine their priority sites and are working with the FCC, FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security on a coordinated response. “There is a lot to do and we are working closely with these partners to get as much done as soon as we can,” Peterson said. Continue Reading