SBA Communications (Nasdaq:SBAC) reported 4Q 2016 earnings yesterday that both the company and analysts found to be “solid.”
Highlights of SBA’s fourth quarter include:
- Repurchased 3.4 million shares
- Net income of $5.3 million or $0.04 per share
- AFFO per share growth of 14 percent over the year earlier period
- Grew the portfolio to over 26,000 communication sites
Continue Reading
The FCC has authorized the first LTE-U
(for unlicensed) devices in the 5 GHz band. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called
Wednesday’s action “a significant advance in wireless innovation and a
big win” for wireless customers. The action comes after saying broadband
deployment is a Commission priority earlier in the day (see story
below). Continue Reading
The active spectrum auction will make
analysts wait even longer to find out the plans SoftBank has in store
for its U.S. carrier, Sprint. SoftBank Group Corp leaders have suggested
it will give control of Sprint to T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche
Telekom to finalize a merger between the two carriers. While sources
have told Reuters
this is true, the two companies have not started negotiations to avoid
violation of anti-collusion rules set by the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission. Continue Reading
AT&T recently acquired television
provider DirecTV for $49 billion, offered $85 billion for Time Warner
and is floating the idea of buying out competitor T-Mobile—which would
come at an estimated $70 billion price tag, reports 24/7 Wall Street.
AT&T attempted to buy T-Mobile
in 2011, but the potentially $39 billion deal fell through. Buyout
talks have been reignited due to Softbank, Sprint’s majority
shareholders’ interest in a potential transaction with Deutsche Telekom,
which is controlled by T-Mobile. Continue Reading
In
December 2013, American Tower Corp. (AMT) entered into an agreement
with the University of Iowa to install and operate two DAS networks for
the Hawkeye’s football and basketball venues—Kinnick Stadium and
Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The relationship between the two parties quickly
soured from that point on.
In August 2015, the University of
Iowa notified it was “immediately terminating the agreement” with AMT
due to the company’s failure to complete the project in a timely manner,
according to The Gazette. Continue Reading
Satellites built by broadband hardware
and service provider, ViaSat, are getting smaller, and more capable,
said chief executive officer Mark Dankberg. According to Space News,
he told investors, “They only require utility cabinets instead of
dedicated buildings for their local hardware, they support more
spectrum, and are much less expensive to maintain and operate. They are
also designed for high reliability and tolerance to terrestrial network
outages and weather effects.” ViaSat
currently operates a three satellite system, but the company recently
applied with the FCC to operate twenty-four satellites in medium-Earth
orbit – around 8,200 kilometers above Earth. Dankberg wants each
satellite to be capable of a terabit of throughput. He acknowledged
One-Web, the well funded start up projecting to put 648 satellites in
low Earth orbit and “blanket the globe with broadband.” As Dankberg
sees it, “the market is big enough.” Continue Reading
In December, the Ohio State Legislature
passed SB 331, which received heavy support from the wireless community
but significant pushback from local municipalities who believed the bill
restricted their authority to regulate small cell deployment.
Now, municipalities in the state
are aiming to implement zoning laws and restrictions that exercise their
local authority while simultaneously complying with the 2016 state law,
reports Crain’s Cleveland Business.
For example, Strongsville, a
suburb located southeast of Cleveland, plans to put in place regulations
designed to regulate small cell deployment for health and safety
reasons, something Strongsville law director Neal M. Jamison believes
the state law allows. Continue Reading
Bidding ended in the “clock phase” of
the forward auction on Friday. This means the broadcast incentive
auction now proceeds to the assignment phase, in which winning forward
auction wireless bidders can bid for specific frequency blocks.
The auction proceeds as of the end of the clock phase were $19,632,506,746,
according to the FCC. Companies bid on 70 MHz of broadcast spectrum
that will be re-purposed for wireless use. The clearing target was 84
MHz, which includes guard bands.
The auction began under former Chairman Tom Wheeler and will end under new Chairman Ajit Pai, who called the event a milestone. “The
participation of these broadcasters and wireless carriers will enable
the Commission to release 84 megahertz of spectrum into the broadband
marketplace,” said Pai. “These low-band airwaves will improve wireless
coverage across the country and will play a particularly important role
in deploying mobile broadband services in rural areas.” Continue Reading
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced
the Indiana Finance Authority has “terminated” a 25-year, $260 million
agreement with Ohio-based Agile Networks to lease space on state-owned
communication towers, reports the Indianapolis Business Journal.
This comes after the deal, which was reported in December by Inside Towers,
received significant pushback from groups like the Indiana Cable
Telecommunications Association and the Indiana Broadband and Technology
Association who opposed the expansiveness of the transaction, which
would have included the state’s fiber infrastructure and public
rights-of-way.
Holcomb told the Indianapolis Business Journal that he “lean[s] into rebidding this, but want[s] to make sure we get a deal, and a deal just never materialized.” Continue Reading
Nearly 130 comments have rolled into
the FCC so far about Mobilitie’s request for a ruling on small cell
siting, according to an examination of the records by Inside Towers.
Mobilitie specifically sought relief from “excessive charges” for
access to public rights-of-way. The agency widened its request for
public input beyond the petition and invited comments more broadly about
how to ease small cell siting, noting that “It is our responsibility to
ensure that this deployment of network facilities does not become
subject to delay caused by unnecessarily time-consuming and costly
siting review processes that may be in conflict with the Communications
Act.”
Municipalities are being deluged with
requests; for example, Montgomery County, Maryland has approximately
200 pending applications, and tells the FCC it “has had more
applications filed in the past four months than in the past 18 years.”
The Commission is developing a record to help it decide whether and to
what extent local land-use authorities’ review of siting applications is
hindering, or is likely to hinder, the deployment of wireless
infrastructure. Continue Reading
In the Virginia capital of Richmond,
municipalities are lobbying lawmakers to vote down a bill to govern
local approval of cell towers. The bill is part of fierce debate as the
General Assembly is in session.
The Virginia Municipal League, which
represents the interests of cities, counties and towns, is fighting the
legislation, saying it would eliminate local authority and give wireless
companies access to local property that no other non-public entity has,
reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“This bill grants special privileges to a single industry at the
expense of the local taxpayers,” according to talking points the
Virginia Municipal League has been sharing with lawmakers. “Forced use
of public property and right-of-way without adequate compensation forces
taxpayers to subsidize a single industry.” Continue Reading
It’s a bird…It’s a plane….It’s a
drone conducting a site inspection along a cell tower! The furious pace
of technological innovation has yielded a device that several different
industries, including the tower industry, are using–the unmanned aerial
vehicle, or, as it is more commonly known, the drone.
Legacy Towers CEO Jim Tracy, for
example, uses drone technology to conduct inspections on cell towers, as
do several other tower inspection and maintenance companies across the
country, reports Seattle Business.
“The first one you get, it’s kind of cool,” Tracy told Seattle Business,
while discussing the device that has become a favorite pastime for
technology buffs, as well as an effective tool for companies across all
industries. “But at the end of the day, it’s just another tool.” Continue Reading
AT&T is launching its small cell deployment plan in San Francisco, a plan that will provide the blueprint
for the carrier’s future deployment in other U.S. cities (see video).
The carrier will use C-RAN architecture throughout the city and use
existing light posts and other urban infrastructure, reports Telegeography.
“Storing the brains of hundreds
of towers and small cells in one place lets engineers add capacity and
improve efficiency for hundreds of cell sites quickly and
simultaneously,” the company said in a press release.
As part of this plan, AT&T
also announced it reached an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based
FiberTower Corporation, as well as the company’s mmWave spectrum rights.
FiberTower owns valuable spectrum in the 24GHz and 39GHz range, which
will help AT&T execute its 5G deployment plan across the city. Continue Reading
