PCIA’s Tower CEO Roundtable Provided Great Insights Into The Industry

The tower industry is expanding quickly in order to keep up with the demand for mobile and broadband technology. Wednesday October 9^th the PCIA’s 2013 Wireless Infrastructure Show gathered the four CEO’s from the major tower companies in the United States. Benjamin Moreland was appointed President and CEO of Crown Castle International in July 2008. Jeffrey Stoops is President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of SBA Communications Corporation. He has been CEO since January 1, 2002. Steven Marshall was named Executive Vice President and President, U.S. Tower Division of American Tower in March 2009. Marc C. Ganzi was the Chief Executive Officer of Global Tower Partners.

These men came together to discuss their thoughts on the future of wireless and the state of the industry. John Adelstein, president of the PCIA, moderated the roundtable and started off asking American Tower’s CEO about their acquirement of Global Tower Partners. “We are absolutely delighted. We are very pleased. They have really great assets and when you combing those with American Tower’s assets we have over 50,000 communications sites,” Marshall said. “We welcome the many members of the team from across the nation to the American Tower team.”

With American Tower’s acquisition of Global Tower Partner’s, Marc Ganzi referred to his current position as “unemployed.” However, Ganzi noted that they have a portfolio of towers in Mexico that they need to get back to work on by building up and buying assets. “Mexico is a market that is growing and it’s a market with a lot of promise,” Ganzi said.

Having all of these CEO’s gathered at the same convention allowed Adelstein to ask them about their opinions regarding the efforts of the PCIA and whether or not they are making a difference in the industry. PCIA has a dedicated Government Relations staff that represents our members' interests at all levels of government by educating key policy-makers about the critical role wireless infrastructure plays in our nation's communications network.

Ganzi remarked that, “It’s no longer NIMBY (Not in My Backyard), it’s YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard). People are now saying, ‘I work at home and I need to be connected.’ It’s part of the fabric of how we connect to our families and I think that’s been a mind shift at the local level. We exist to help accelerate the build out and reduce cost. To me, that’s why we worked hard on the hill to get that legislation passed.”

Jeff Stoops of SBA Communications believes that, “On the federal side we’re in pretty good shape. On the state side, there’s always room to improve.”

PCIA and other wireless organizations have been working hard to decrease barriers that make it difficult for the wireless infrastructure to be built. Their efforts are starting to pay off with the federal government restriction the reasons state and local governments can give to veto a tower proposal.