California Town’s New Rules Draw Carrier Questions

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, a coastal town in Los Angeles County and adjacent to one of America’s most-populated cities, has a new ordinance regulating how wireless cell towers are approved and installed, after residents worked together to pressure town officials following a misunderstanding last July. The City Council passed the stricter law last week. Rancho Palos Verdes currently has 140 wireless towers operating throughout the city. Continue Reading

Radio Group Owner Appeals Tower Denial In Florida Keys

Bob Holladay, owner of U.S. 1 Radio and four other stations in the Florida Keys, has filed an appeal with state Department of Administrative Hearings after the Monroe County Planning Commission agreed with a horde of angry residents and swatted down Holladay’s request to build a new 199-foot monopole on Sugarloaf Key. The pole, he said, would be home to his five radio stations and have rental space for cell carriers. Continue Reading

Wall Street Firm Sees Slow Down Ahead For Towers

Wells Fargo Securities analysts last week downgraded the growth rate for the tower sector. The concern is carriers are avoiding network contracts until 5G standards are finalized, and the FCC’s incentive auction is complete.
 
In a research note, quoted by Fierce Wireless, the analysts noted, “Bottom line — we believe the industry is facing some growing pains right now in the U.S. Will it pass? Yes, we believe so.” They went on to say, “We believe the carriers are pushing back and new incremental growth will be harder from here as we wait for the spectrum auctions, FirstNet, and 5G decisions and standards all get sorted out.”  Continue Reading

Anchorage-Based GCI To Sell Tower Division

The Anchorage, Alaska-based multi-dimensional communications company intends to sell its tower division this year and gain up to $90 million, the company said Wednesday. “During 2016, we expect to monetize our urban wireless towers and rooftop locations for approximately $90 million in a sale leaseback transaction. We will redeploy and invest the cash received into our broadband infrastructure in Alaska.” The news was noted in the General Communications fourth quarter and full year 2015 results press release issued Wednesday from Anchorage.

“We also anticipate selling our urban wireless towers in 2016, which will provide us additional capital that we intend to re-invest in the growth of our company,” said Ron Duncan, GCI’s president and chief executive officer. “This sale will support significant investments in a diverse fiber to the North Slope and continued expansion of our TERRA network. These steps demonstrate GCI’s commitment to being the leader in broadband infrastructure in Alaska.” Continue Reading

Vertical Bridge Gets 200 Towers Taller Thanks to Alpha Media

Vertical Bridge, the largest private owner and manager of wireless communication infrastructure in the U.S., just got even taller in the tower world. The Boca Raton behemoth has purchased more than 100 tower sites and nearly 200 towers as part of the mega acquisition by Alpha Media of Digity, LLC that closed last week. Vertical Bridge adds 64 Alpha Media sites along with 49 former Digity sites to its vast collection, upping its portfolio to more than 42,000 towers, rooftop locations, billboards, utility infrastructure and other site locations that it owns, operates or manages. The company also noted that the deal “significantly” expands its geographic presence in key markets across the United States. Continue Reading

Nashville Tower Climber Climbs Down After Shaky Moment

 A small crowd gathered around a Nashville, TN tower as emergency workers assisted a maintenance worker who called 911 from the top of the tower early Tuesday morning, March 1. The tower is located in a shopping area south of Nashville, and Nashville Fire Department trucks were easily spotted by shoppers and other passersby as they arrived. The worker was there to perform routine maintenance on the tower.
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Plenty of Carrier Space Left on Ridgefield, CT Tower

What if they built a tower and no one came? Well, that’s not exactly the case with Danbury, CT-based Homeland Towers’ two-month-old tower in Ridgebury, but close. AT&T is on the tower,  the area’s tallest of eight towers, and it is filling in with full-signal an area popularly known as a blackout zone, while the tower owner waits for T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon to climb aboard.
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