Vertical Bridge buys over $500M worth of towers
The holiday shopping spree continues this week. Last week it was American Tower buying up towers. This week Vertical Bridge struck two large deals to increase their tower portfolio. The first is with U.S. Cellular, where they entered into a definitive agreement to buy 595 towers, worth an estimated $159 million, from the carrier.
“Vertical Bridge is excited to acquire this portfolio of towers in large metropolitan markets,” said Alexander L. Gellman, CEO of the company. “Many of these sites are in locations that would be very difficult to replace. We are also happy to work again with a quality counter-party like U.S. Cellular.”
The second deal is with iHeartMedia. What? The people of iHeartRadio have towers? Guess so, because they’re selling $500 million worth of them at the very least! While the deal is not done, anything could happen, but the parties estimate the deal will be finalized in the first quarter of 2015. According to Gellman, the company has “2,000 revenue-producing sites that are owned or under definitive agreement.” Since the two deals were announced on the same day, it is uncertain whether that number includes the U.S. Cellular towers.
FAA streamlines NOTAM system
What do all of those acronyms mean and how does it apply to towers? Allow me to elaborate. This week, the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Communications Bureau sent out an advisory letting those in the wireless industry know that the Federal Aviation Administration streamlined the process for Notices to Airmen. Whenever a tower has extinguished or faulty lighting, the owner is supposed to notify the FAA within 30 minutes of discovering the outage and fix it as soon as reasonably possible. The tower owners will now be able to select the amount of time their NOTAMs are active.
So what does this really mean? According to the full text of the notice, “This change will relieve tower owners of the often burdensome ministerial obligation to cancel and resubmit NOTAMs.” So there you go, one small blow against unnecessary bureaucracy and extra paperwork.
Regional / local tower news
- CMPA tables cell tower idea, for now, in Pensacola, Fla.
- Utilities Commission: Cell tower at dump not need in New Canaan, Conn.
- Letter: Cell tower ‘flagpoles’ are waving neglect in Glendale, Calif.
- Authorities use cell tower pings to track missing teens in Humboldt, Calif.
- Construction begins on new cell tower in Beatrice, Neb.
- AT&T looks at, nixes, 9 alternative sites for Gulf Road cell tower in Dartmouth, Mass.
- Hollywood, Calif. community rallying against proposed AT&T tower
- Cell tower location site planned in Clovis, N.M.
- Cell tower vote appealed over restrictions in Baraboo, Wis.
- ‘Monopine’ cell tower proposed for Boxford, Mass. site walk is Dec. 13
- Kokomo, Ind., Plan Commission approves construction of cell tower
- Wireless company, Southampton County, Va. has no plans to erect cell tower
- Speedy wireless cell service in Nome, Alaska looks more plausible with AT&T tower progress
- Meadford, Ontario, Canada cell tower likely to go in original location
Featured Image Copyright: trainman32 / 123RF Stock Photo
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