Wireless Infrastructure Association: The Game is the Same, But the Name Has Changed

 Some 3,000 people working in the fast-growing wireless industry converged in Dallas yesterday to attend the Wireless Infrastructure Show hosted by the PCIA—The Wireless Infrastructure Association. Most never knew or could not remember that PCIA stood for the Personal Communications Infrastructure Association. But, they all knew wireless. So, meet the new name, Wireless Infrastructure Association, or WIA.
 
“For the past 20 years, we’ve used “The Wireless Infrastructure Association” as a moniker to more clearly describe our membership and advocacy efforts. We wanted a name that was not only more descriptive of what we do, but also simpler and more direct,”President/CEO Jonathan Adelstein said in a statement after announcing the name change to a breakfast panel.
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How To Influence Others So They Understand Your Message

The business of lobbying certainly got its start long before the word “lobbyist” was coined in Washington’s Willard Hotel from cantankerous old men waiting around the historic, posh hotel’s lobby, waiting to jump on a politician returning from Capitol Hill to buy him a drink and bend his ear on the latest issue of importance. But, the practice today is better regulated—lobbyists are now registered—but the importance of the task is still the measure of how business gets done in Washington and any little town in the country. It is the business operator’s way of getting the power brokers and decision makers’ attention and “educating” them to the real world.



More than two dozen attendees to PCIA’s Wireless Infrastructure Show in Dallas chose to forego happy hour and instead “listen and learn” and “learn from the best” in how to take their messages to policy makers in their hometowns, governments and industries.

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Verizon Focused on Densifying Network in Major Cities, CFO Tells Analysts

Appearing at the annual MoffettNathanson Media and Communications Summit in New York last week, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the strike-plagued communications company is intends to continue building out its fiber, small cell and DAS networks in America’s major cities. Shammo said he expects Verizon to budget $17.2 billion to $17.7 billion per year in capital expenditures going forward for both wireline and wireless spending.
 
“When you think about the wireless network, the fiber network, that’s really where our concentration is right now,” RCRWireless’s Martha DeGrasse quoted Shammo telling the investors’ conference. “We continue to densify that LTE network, continue to spend capital at a pretty consistent rate, actually increasing year-over-year, and we’re doing that for the densification of LTE but also in preparation for 5G.”

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Grammy-Nominated Crop Duster Pilot Killed After Plane Hits Tower Wire

John Allen Seay, Jr. died May 14, when the crop-dusting plane he was flying near West, TX crashed after it hit a guy wire on a cell tower. He died Saturday afternoon after being ejected from the aircraft. Waco’s KWTX-TV website showed a seared aircraft in pieces in an open field.  

The station reported the 75-year-old pilot was a Grammy-nominated musician who had a long career as a singer and songwriter. He performed under the name Johnny Sea and began his entertainment career when he was 17.
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FCC Auction Participants

 
The FCC accepted 99 applications that it said met the requirements of the auction to participate. View the participants click here. 

The FCC determined that five applications were incomplete and not acceptable for the auction. There were submitted by KURIAN, THOMAS K., Laboral Data Systems, Liberty Spectrum Inc., Wendl, Lisa, and Wire, G-

TowerCo Sells Grain 253 Towers, 95 Other Assets For $244 Million

It’s the third time since 2004, when TowerCo was launched, that Richard Byrne and his team of more than two dozen in Cary, NC have built up an impressive collection of tower assets and found a buyer for them. He told Inside Towers “I am extremely fortunate to have wonderful investors (Tailwind Capital Partners and Soros Fund Management) and great people working with me.” With a chuckle, Byrne added, “ I am very, very lucky.”
 
Grain Infrastructure II, L.P, of Sarasota, FL paid $244 million for the 253 tower spread “all over the U.S.,” Byrne said. The deal settled on May 11. Byrne said TowerCo decided to part with its third portfolio of towers last summer and began marketing it in the fall. “We are pleased with the outcome of this transaction and look forward to the continued growth of TowerCo IV which is off to a very good start.” Continue Reading

Boulder, CO-Based Atlas Tower Completes 100th Structure in South Africa

While Atlas Tower has built about 90 towers in the U.S. over the past seven years, it also was a busy player in the aggressive push to improve voice and data coverage throughout South Africa. While doing so, it has become a predominant owner of new tower infrastructure in the country. Founder and CEO Nate Foster, speaking from his office in Paarl, South Africa, told Inside Towers yesterday the company on Friday (May 6) completed its 100th tower. The latest structure is in Soweto, a township in the bustling city of Johannesburg.
 
“South Africa represents a steep departure from our careful and calculated U.S. business model,” said Foster. “We carefully assessed foreign opportunities and came to the conclusion that although South Africa is a complicated market that lacks traditional clarity, it provides us the kind of regulatory environment that we believe drives value.” Continue Reading