BOLTON LANDING, N.Y. – It’s near impossible to get any group of people for the wireless industry together not at least acknowledge the impact expected from AT&T Inc.’s (T) proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc.
And at this week’s New York State Wireless Association Trade Show & Conference, that topic was indeed on the minds of many. With many in attendance focused on the actually construction and supplying of equipment for network infrastructure, the thought of one of the nation’s larger players being taken out of play brought questions.
Jeffrey Stoops, president and CEO of tower giant SBA Communication Corp., offered his opinion on what sort of impact the deal could have across not just the tower segment, but also to the broader infrastructure and equipment market.
“Clearly it will have an effect,” Stoops said. “There is still too much uncertainty about divestitures, and I think there will be some divestitures. Where and to whom markets or licenses get divested will have an impact.”
While he does expect an impact, Stoops looked back to when Cingular Wireless L.L.C. bought AT&T Wireless Services Inc. as a possible guide to the expected on-the-street impact.
“There was a lot of overlapping then and over time we lost one of those tenants on the tower,” Stoops explained. “However, the remaining installations were enhanced to handle the increased customer density. When the dust settled you had a densification of the network. Coverage per tower dropped from five miles to down to 1.5 miles in many cases.”
Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin concurred with Stoops’ opinion on the potential for divestitures, noting that the FCC would likely look at the deal on a market-by-market basis, look at competitive concerns and ramifications. Martin was originally scheduled to attend the show in person, but travel delays limited his participation to a Skype session broadcast to attendees.
“[The FCC] will look at customer and spectrum aggregation and make the necessary adjustments,” Martin said.
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