Let’s EVOLVE

EVOLVE is a new coalition that was announced earlier this week, whose goal is to promote the consumer benefits of unlicensed spectrum and new technologies for unlicensed spectrum like LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) and Licensed Assisted Access (LAA). LTE-U and LAA are new technologies that will substantially increase data speeds and improve coverage for millions of Americans.  Founding members include the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA—The Wireless Association, Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Qualcomm Incorporated, T-Mobile, and Verizon.  The EVOLVE coalition believes regulators should reject calls to preemptively interfere with new technologies like LTE-U and LAA that enhance utilization of unlicensed spectrum. Continue reading here. 

Sprinting for #1

By 2017, Sprint’s network will perform better than Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile. That’s the bold statement Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure made to CNNMoney reporters David Goldman and Hope King. This reiterates the statements that Claure made over the summer, stating Sprint would be among the top two in overall network performance in the U.S. While Sprint has shared plans to build out its macro sites and densify its networks in metropolitan areas, two years is not a lot of time to achieve this goal. Goldman and King explained, “Sprint has the tools to do it — it’s always just been a question of using them the right way. After its 2013 purchase of mobile network Clearwire, Sprint is sitting on a boatload of unused wireless spectrum . In fact, Sprint has more spectrum than any of its competitors.” Claure agreed noting that the company has a big advantage over Verizon.  “We have half their customers and twice the amount of spectrum,” Claure told CNNMoney. Sprint’s spectrum is in the higher frequency range, though lower bandwidth is preferred. Claure told the news outlet that to take advantage of the spectrum they own, they need to deploy three times the number of towers as Verizon utilizes. Continue reading here. 

Man Stable After Tower Fall

A man fell from a cell tower in Summit Park located in Harrison County, WV, Friday afternoon. Currently in stable condition, he fell from the tower and was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital with a head injury, according to WDTV-TV. This accident comes just 18 months after two tower workers and a local firefighter were killed while working on a tower when it collapsed in the Summit Park area near Clarksburg. WDTV-TV reported that there is no word on the man’s name, or whether or not he works with the company involved in the previous tower collapse accident. Continue reading here. 

Crown Castle Remains Steady

Crown Castle continues to focus on steady execution against a relatively stable spending backdrop. That came out of a meeting between Amir Rozwadowski of Barclays, Crown Castle CEO Ben Moreland and CFO Jay Brown at last week’s CTIA conference in Las Vegas.The executives appeared comfortable in the outlook for 6-7% AFFO per share growth going into 2016 given new leasing activity signed in 2015, small cell growth plus the lapping of churn headwinds, Rozwadowski wrote.  Crown Castle, like American Tower, has not seen a recovery in spending from AT&T just yet. Many analysts predicted that the carrier’s infrastructure spending would spike once the DirecTV deal was closed. The Crown Castle execs did note that they are optimistic about AT&T’s long-term investment needs. Sprint’s network build out plan was discussed, and Rozwadowski wrote that the carrier is in the early stages of executing its network transformation strategy, but spending should increase down the road. Continue reading here. 

Latin America: Opportunity Awaits

By Jeffrey Yorke

Long the “Land of Opportunity,” America has been the destination for people looking to expand their horizons, beef up their bank accounts, and better their lives. But there may be some opportunities left, south of the border. A slew of American tower companies are discovering the charms of Latin America.

“We have more than 250 assets in Guatemala, 350 in Nicaragua and over 1,000 altogether, all home-grown built with nothing acquired through acquisitions,” Maria Scotti, CEO of Torrecom Partners LLC, said proudly during the opening minutes of the “Tower Strategies in Latin America” session at the Tower Summit in Las Vegas.

Scotti talked about Latin America and the Caribbean with the excitement of a successful 1849 gold rusher skipping over the hills of San Francisco. Noting the devil is in the details of contracting with land owners and carriers, she was optimistic about the near future. “AT&T has finally started advertising, [cellular] plans are reducing. Everyone is fighting for the consumer—trying to get four or five thousand sites rationalized before everyone really gets going.” Continue reading here. 

Tower Climber Spots Missing Kids

In Hamilton County, TN, tower worker Corey Fitzpatrick called the police after spotting Hannah Musgrave, 7, and her brother, Gideon, 4, who had been missing overnight. Fitzpatrick spoke with Vince Lennon of WRCB-TV about the experience. “I mean we didn’t do anything,” says Fitzpatrick. “The dog led them out of the woods, that guy up there heard the dog and came down to talk to them and then we called the police,” said Fitzpatrick. The man he is referring to, Eric Elliot, was the tower climber who spotted the children. He was installing new equipment on a tower at Mowbray Mountain. Continue reading here. 

American Tower Encouraged

Leah Stearns, American Tower Treasurer and Igor Khislavsky, Investor Relations of American Tower, met with Barclays’ Amir Rozwadowski and Sandeep Gupta to discuss the near-term trends and the company’s long-term strategy. The American Tower executives reiterated their commitment to the long-term strategy of leveraging the financial and operational resources at its disposal to continually seek out the best and most optimized means to drive longer-term AFFO growth. “While we continue to believe near-term business momentum remains fairly steady as the industry continues to wait for improved spending activity from a number of select U.S. carriers, we emerged encouraged about the prospects for an improved spending backdrop in the mid-term as densification initiatives continue to gain momentum,” the analysts wrote. Continue reading here. 

SoftBank’s Shopping Spree

SoftBank Group has gone on a shopping spree for Sprint’s stock shares, and has boosted the struggling U.S. wireless carrier’s stock nearly 50 percent over the past two weeks, adding $6.7 billion to its market value, according to Bloomberg. As of last Friday, the company had purchased Sprint shares every day since August 10. This increased SoftBank’s stake to 82%, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Bloomberg noted that this is below SoftBank’s target limit of 85%. This is just another illustration of how SoftBank founder and Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son is renewing his commitment to the wireless carrier.

Centerline Solutions Acquires IDC Joint Venture

Centerline Solutions has acquired IDC Joint Venture. IDC is a wireless construction firm based in Hawaii. This strategic acquisition not only enhances the company’s services in Hawaii, but makes Centerline Solutions the only full turnkey wireless services provider there.

“With this acquisition, Centerline Solutions is now the leading wireless services provider in Hawaii, offering end-to-end services for all things wireless, completed in-house by Hawaiian residents,” said Benjamin Little, CEO of Centerline Solutions. Continue reading here. 

Drone Hits Cell Tower

On August 22, Nick Schwendeman, senior vice president of The Webb Companies in Lexington, KY, got a phone call about a property he managed. Security at one of the Webb Companies’ downtown buildings said a drone hit a cell tower on top of the Lexington Financial Center. The building is one of the city’s tallest, housing a tower on top of the more than 400-foot tall building. “It was fortunate that it landed on the roof,” Schwendeman said. “It could have fallen and hit someone. It was Saturday, probably around noon, at the time of the Lexington Farmers Market when downtown is very crowded. Or it could have hit one of our windows or had fallen and hit a car.” (Lexington-Herald Leader) Continue reading here.