Columbus, Ohio-based Divine Tower International Corp. bills itself the one-stop shop for small wireless carriers looking to build out their networks, providing everything from the initial financing to equipment procurement.
“Towers are only a component of our infrastructure. The only thing we don’t have is the spectrum to operate the service, and we don’t sell and market retail phones to customers,” said Norm Bangle Jr., president of Divine Tower.
The path to becoming an all-inclusive resource for carriers partly was a reaction to what the company saw happening in the wireless industry.
“As we looked at the industry a couple of years ago, we found a lot of licenses were not being built out, and there was a reason for that,” Bangle said.
The company found many small carriers could not afford the equipment and management services needed to operate a network.
Divine Tower finances projects using its own lines of credit and purchases equipment in volume, giving those carriers with less buying power the capability to purchase equipment at bulk prices.
According to Lou Siyufy, Divine Tower’s vice president of marketing, “The financing is what separates us from the field and allows the smaller carriers to compete.”
Divine Tower typically provides 100 percent of the financial support for the network and builds the network to the carrier’s specifications. The entire system then is leased back to the carrier at a fixed monthly rate. All construction, engineering, equipment procurement, warehousing, electronic equipment, towers, lines, antennas and other equipment are included in the financial package.
“Take a small carrier with only 100 sites to build,” explained Bangle. “First they would have to have the staff to do it, second they would have to contact Divine to build the network, and thirdly they would then have to go buy the equipment directly from the vendor … We can build a network for a lot less money.”
In October 1999, Divine Tower entered into a three-year agreement with Lucent Technologies Corp. to provide millions of dollars in wireless infrastructure equipment. The company said it also has contracts with AT&T Technologies, Nextel Communications Inc., Andrew Corp. and Harris Corp., among others, to supply equipment and services to Divine Tower and its customers.
Founded in 1966 by Bob Divine Sr., Divine Tower operated for many years as a general contracting construction company. In the mid-1980s, Divine’s son Tom, the current chief executive officer, expanded the company into telecommunications.
Divine Tower employs about 500 people and has offices in 18 cities nationally and 14 cities internationally.
Bangle said wireless infrastructure equipment composes about 95 percent of Divine Tower’s business, but the company provides wireline equipment and services as well.
