American Tower’s Global Ambitions

 By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor American Tower (NYSE: AMT) has become, through strategic acquisitions and a record number of new builds, the largest publicly held tower company in the world. On a pro forma basis, including towers from its pending acquisition of Telefonica’s Telxius Towers, announced in January, AMT’s global portfolio is nearly 215,000 towers in 20 countries.

That tally puts the company only second to China Tower’s two million towers, though China Tower is predominantly state-owned.

AMT reported total 2020 property leasing revenues of almost $8.0 billion, up about 7 percent over $7.5 billion in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA grew nearly 9 percent year-over-year to $5.2 billion and consolidated AFFO came in at $3.8 billion, up 8 percent YoY.

Capital expenditures in 2020 were $1.1 billion, up 4 percent from $1.0 billion in 2019. Discretionary capex for new tower builds, tower upgrades and ground lease purchases totaled just over $900 million. The balance went towards tower maintenance and corporate facility investments. Continue Reading

A Total of 21 Bidders Won All Licenses in C-Band Auction

 The FCC announced the winning bidders and the final bid totals in the C-band auction. Net winning bids totaled $81,114,481,921 and gross winning bids totaled $81,168,677,645 for Auction 107. A total of 21 bidders won all of the available 5,684 licenses, said the agency late Wednesday afternoon.

“It is essential to America’s economic recovery that we deliver on the promise of next-generation wireless services for everyone, everywhere,” said FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “This auction reflects a shift in our nation’s approach to 5G toward mid-band spectrum that can support fast, reliable, and ubiquitous service that is competitive with our global peers.”

The five bidders with the largest total gross winning bid amounts from both the clock and assignments phases were as follows: Continue Reading

Rosenworcel Proposes Plan to Free Up More Mid-Band Spectrum

 FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday circulated among her colleagues a draft Order that would make much-needed mid-band spectrum available for 5G. If adopted at the Commission’s March 17 Open Meeting, 100 MHz of mid-band spectrum in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band would be made available for auction and 5G deployment. 

She also shared a notice to seek comment on procedures for this auction (Auction 110); Bidding would begin in early October of this year. Continue Reading

SBA Adds to List of DISH’s Buildout Options For 5G

 UPDATE On the same day both DISH and SBA Communications Corporation reported their annual and quarterly earnings, they also announced a new long-term master lease agreement. The deal was announced early yesterday and provides DISH access to SBA’s extensive nationwide portfolio of wireless communication sites. Details of the agreement were not made public.

The agreement follows recent arrangements with major towercos Crown Castle and Vertical Bridge. Crown’s offer includes 20,000 macro towers and its fiber services while Vertical Bridge provides locations on 300,000 sites. An additional lease agreement with seven independent towercos announced last week added 4,000 macro sites as prospective locations for DISH’s 5G network buildout.

"With the CBRS and C-band auctions now a reality in the U.S., our recently-announced master agreement with DISH, and important spectrum auctions planned for our international markets over the next two years, we believe we are on the cusp of another increase in operational activity and demand for our infrastructure likely to begin in the second half of 2021, and continue for years thereafter,” said Jeffrey Stoops, SBA's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Tower Workers Rescued From Oquirrh Mountains

 Three contract tower workers were snowmobiling their way to a remote mountain site in Utah when the deep snow got the better of them. As Gephardt Daily reports, the men found themselves "stuck and cold," eventually calling for assistance from the Unified Police Department (UPD). The workers were headed for the BYU radio tower near Nelson Mountain, according to Sergeant Melody Cutler of the UPD, when their snowmobiles got embedded in a large snowdrift late in the afternoon. Cutler told Inside Towers one of the three was hospitalized with hypothermia and is listed in critical condition. 

The call was answered by the Salt Lake City Search and Rescue Team who summoned the Department of Public Safety. Responders on the ground ordered a Life Flight helicopter to take the critically stricken worker to Jordan Valley Hospital nearby.

“The information we got is that three gentlemen went snowmobiling," said Lieutenant Paul Barker. "There is a dirt road here that goes up into the Oquirrh Mountains and they were headed up to work on one of the towers,” he noted. “They tried to self-rescue and dig themselves out and then eventually called 911 needing assistance.”

Cutler said she had no information on the name of the company that employed the contractors and could not divulge names of the workers.

Access to Generators Hinders Storm Recovery

 With about 490,000 Texas homes and businesses without electricity Thursday morning and power plants gradually coming back online, the telecom sector shouldered its share of outages. Poweroutage.us, which aggregates data from utility websites, said the number of homes in the dark is trending down from more than three million on Wednesday. 

On Thursday, telecom providers reported 208 site outages in Texas affecting 369,918 wireless and 34,868 wireline users, according to the FCC. That compares to 140 reported outages in Texas affecting 279,585 wireless and 9,354 wireline users Wednesday.  Continue Reading 

FCC Gets Going on New Broadband Maps, Benefits Under Rosenworcel

 

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief

As one of her first actions as Acting Chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel established a task force to improve the FCC’s broadband maps. Congress directed the agency to create an Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. “It will enhance high-speed connections and offer new ways to connect for those struggling during the pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis,” she said during her first meeting in her new role. Congress provided $3.2 billion for the effort, which will provide discounts of up to $50 per month for internet connectivity and equipment per low-income household and up to $75 a month for tribal land households. The FCC is reviewing public comments on the program. Congress directed the FCC to create the program swiftly. “To write the rules for this program, we must act decisively and will need to make hard choices along the way,” said Rosenworcel during the meeting. “The program must be exclusive, expansive, inclusive and transparent.” Continue Reading

House Includes $7+B for Remote Learning Funds in COVID Relief Bill

The House Energy & Commerce Committee late last week passed and sent to the full House a COVID-19 relief and budget reconciliation package that allocates more than $7 billion to the E-Rate program. Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) applauded inclusion of their legislation the Emergency Educational Connections Act and the E-Rate money. The program directs funds to schools and libraries for internet connectivity.

The legislation funds WiFi hotspots, modems, routers, and internet-enabled devices, including internet service through such equipment, to students, staff, and patrons. Continue Reading

FCC Urged to Reverse Fiber Unbundling Regs

 A California firm wants the FCC to reverse a Trump-era decision to loosen rules that require dominant local telecoms to unbundle and resell fiber networks to make room for competitors. Sonic Telecom said in a petition this week the deregulatory move deters, rather than promotes, fiber-to-the-home infrastructure builds using certain networks. 

The agency relaxed the rules in October. The Commission should revisit the changes because two unbundled network elements are crucial to the rapid expansion of competing fiber networks, Sonic asserts, according to Law360. The pandemic highlights the need for a faster fiber race in urban areas, Sonic said in the filing; it referred specifically to unbundled dark fiber within a half mile of fiber. Continue Reading

What Do Bill Gates, Holographic Beam Forming and $50M Have in Common?

 Pivotal, developer of 5G mmWave infrastructure products, announced yesterday the closing of a $50 million C-round led by an affiliate of tech-investor Tracker Capital. One of Pivotal’s existing investors participating in the financing, is Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The company is laser-focused (sorry, couldn’t resist) on Holographic Beam Forming® (HBF) technology and its use in developing communications platforms, systems and applications. The technology is used to deploy and accelerate 5G millimeter Wave (mmWave) networks for mobile and fixed wireless access.

HBF is described as multiple high-intensity theater spotlights focusing their radiated energy on separate targets without illuminating adjacent users. Current cellular systems, conversely, use antennas that form 60-90 degree stationary sector beams. The narrow beam allows for multiple concurrent transmissions using the same frequency without interference, thus allowing for abundant spectrum reuse with higher intensity signals delivered to both stationary and mobile users. Continue Reading

Huawei Battles FCC in Court Over Security Threat Charge

 Huawei filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging a year-old decision by the FCC when it designated the Chinese-based company and ZTE as national security threats. Then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said there was an “overwhelming weight of evidence,” that proved reportedly close ties to China’s government. That relationship, Pai said, also required the company to cooperate with the country’s spy agencies. Huawei has been fighting U.S. sanctions and others ever since, according to the Wall Street Journal, and is making an effort to “claw back” restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump.

The suit alleges the FCC overstepped its authority with an "arbitrary, capricious abuse of discretion not supported by substantial evidence" when it issued the judgement. The Commission order prevented U.S. telecoms from accessing the agency's Universal Service Fund to buy networking equipment or technology from Huawei. Continue Reading

Federal Judge OKs AT&T PR, USVI Sale to Liberty With Spins

 In a deal struck Thursday, a federal court okayed an agreement between AT&T and Liberty Latin America. A U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia approved the sale of AT&T’s Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Island operations for close to $2 billion if certain assets are divested.

The case began in October 2019, when Liberty Latin America Ltd. agreed to buy AT&T’s wireless and wireline operations on those islands for $1.95 billion in cash. In the complaint filed by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the DOJ said Liberty competes with AT&T for wireline customers in Puerto Rico over fiber optic networks they own there. Their enterprise customers are businesses of all sizes as well as institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and government agencies.

When the transaction closes, Liberty would take ownership of certain AT&T assets in Puerto Rico, including its wireless and wireline networks, wireless spectrum, contracts, real estate, and most of AT&T’s customer relationships on the island. Originally, the DOJ said the deal would lessen competition in that market for telecom services. Continue Reading

Biden’s Pick for Commerce Secretary Gains Senate Committee Nod

 

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo won approval from a U.S. Senate Committee on Wednesday to become President Joe Biden's Secretary of Commerce. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved Raimondo by a vote of 21-to-3. Full Senate confirmation is still required.   The vote proved she smoothed over Republican fears over how she views Huawei, reported Politico. Earlier, some members thought she was non-committal about the Chinese telecom. In written answers to follow-up questions, Raimondo said she does see Huawei as a threat and sees no reason to take any companies off the trade blacklist. Continue Reading

Thune, Colleagues Reintroduce 5G Workforce Bill

Five U.S. Senators, led by John Thune (R-SD), Tuesday reintroduced the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act, legislation to address the shortage of trained workers necessary to fill next-generation jobs in telecom. S. 3355 is aimed at encouraging apprenticeships to grow a workforce adept at building 5G wireless networks.

Last year’s bill called for the Labor secretary to issue guidance to states on how to bolster these workforce efforts, in consultation with the FCC chair. The new version puts the FCC in charge of doing that, in consultation with the Labor secretary.

An FCC-led interagency working group, in consultation with the Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal and non-federal stakeholders, would develop recommendations to address the workforce shortage. The group is expanded under the new measure and would identify federal resources available to states for workforce development efforts. Continue Reading

DISH Partners with Vertical Bridge on Long-Term Lease Agreement

 DISH Network Corporation and Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC  yesterday announced a long-term agreement granting DISH immediate access to Vertical Bridge's portfolio of towers, rooftops, utility transmission structures, billboards, convenience stores and other sites used for wireless infrastructure deployment. Vertical Bridge has a portfolio of over 300,000 sites spread across all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
 
"Building a national 5G network requires an extensive presence across urban, suburban and rural areas, and Vertical Bridge's portfolio offers DISH the array of coverage that we need," said Dave Mayo, DISH Executive Vice President of Network Development. "As we continue to deploy DISH's 5G network, Vertical Bridge's assets, experience and commitment make them an invaluable partner."
 
"As the U.S.'s newest national wireless carrier, DISH is building a truly unique 5G network, and Vertical Bridge is committed to assisting DISH in deploying its network quickly and efficiently," said Alex Gellman, CEO and Co-Founder of Vertical Bridge. "We are extremely proud to support DISH for its long-term infrastructure needs."

Advocacy Groups Urge Biden, Congress to Fill FCC Vacancy

 UPDATE A coalition of 30 advocacy groups are calling on President Joe Biden and Congress to quickly fill the vacant, fifth seat on the FCC.

While Biden named Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, the Acting Chairwoman, the Commission was left with a vacancy when former Chairman Ajit Pai exited on Inauguration Day. He told reporters just before he left that even if President Donald Trump was re-elected, he and his family had decided he would leave the post at the beginning of this year.

Before Pai left, Senate Republicans fast-tracked the confirmation of Nathan Simington, a Republican nominated by Trump. That leaves the agency deadlocked at 2-2, Inside Towers reported. Continue Reading