SureWest unloads towers to Global Tower Partners for $10M

Californian telecom provider SureWest Communications is slowly but surely moving further away from the wireless business. Today, the firm announced it sold 50 of its wireless communications towers to Global Tower Partners.
Though the purchase is still pending, SureWest expects the final price to be between $9.5 million and $10.2 million and the deal to close in the fourth quarter.
The announcement comes on the heels of SureWest’s sale of its wireless assets to Verizon Wireless in May of this year. Verizon Wireless bought the carrier for $69 million and moved over SureWest’s 50,000 customers to its network in August.
“We are pleased to have found the right buyer for our towers, which was the appropriate move for the company following the sale of our wireless assets to Verizon Wireless earlier this year,” said Steve Oldham, SureWest’s president and CEO. “We are executing on our plan to divest non-core assets from the business and focus on providing our customers with the most advanced telephone, Internet and television services. The net proceeds from the towers will continue to enhance our financial flexibility as we expand our fiber-based triple-play offerings to a broader service area.”
If the tower sale closes, SureWest said it plans to use the money to expand its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network in Sacramento and Kansas City regions. In line with those plans, SureWest did some purchasing of its own in February of this year. The company acquired Everest Broadband Inc., a broadband provider in the Kansas City region.
As for Global Tower Partners, the move will further bolster its position in the tower market. The company is currently the No. 3 tower company in the nation, with about 10,000 towers under its belt.
“The SureWest acquisition affirms our commitment to being one of the leading acquirer of premier tower locations in the United States,” said Marc Ganzi, CEO of Global Tower Partners. “We believe these unique locations will address the growing needs of our customers in enhancing their coverage and network quality throughout Northern California.”