The companies listed below represent the largest independent national and regional tower companies in the United States for the second quarter of 2008.
American Tower and Crown Castle continue to dominate the U.S. tower industry.
American Tower remains the largest tower company in the country, with more than 23,000 towers in its portfolio that covers the United States, Mexico and Brazil. Crown Castle comes in a close second with more than 22,000 towers.
Global Tower Partners and SBA Communications rank third and fourth in a second tier of companies that own more than 1,000 towers. TowerCo will soon join that category with the acquisition of 3,000 towers from Sprint Nextel. That deal closed during the third quarter and is not reflected on this ranking.
SBA bolstered its tower portfolio with the acquisitions of Optasite, which ranks eighth on this list, and Lightower, which ranks 10th. Neither deal closed during the second quarter and are not reflected on this listing.
The RCR Wireless News “By-the-Numbers” list is the property of RCR Wireless News and should not be construed as an endorsement of the companies listed below. Please link to this report using the “permalink” button, below.
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Top Tower Companies for the Second Quarter of 2008
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Tower Companies
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# of Towers
|
Markets
|
Carrier partners
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| American Tower |
23,134
|
United States, Mexico, Brazil
|
unavailable
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| Crown Castle |
22,461
|
United States, Australia
|
unavailable
|
| Global Tower Partners |
9,995
|
United States
|
unavailable
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| SBA Communications |
6,896
|
United States
|
Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, MetroPCS
|
| Message Center Management |
879
|
United States
|
Cingular, Cricket, Dobson, MetroPCS, Clearwire, SkyTel, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless
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| Clear Channel Communications |
700*
|
United States
|
unavailable
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| Subcarrier Communications |
605**
|
United States
|
Verizon, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, AT&T, Clearwire, MetroPCS, USA Mobility
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| Optasite |
528
|
United States
|
unavailable
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| Tower Ventures |
400
|
United States
|
Nextel, Cellular South, Verizon, Cricket, Cingular, Clearwire, T-Mobile
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| Lightower |
350
|
United States
|
unavailable
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| Diamond Communications |
272
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United States with Southeast focus
|
unavailable
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| Vangard Wireless |
220
|
United States
|
unavailable
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| DukeNet Communications |
142
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Midwest, Southeast
|
unavailable
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| Performance Development Group |
84
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Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota
|
unavailable
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| Industrial Communications |
71
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United States–Northeast and Florida
|
unavailable
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| Horvath Communications |
71
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Midwest, Pennsylvania, Texas
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Cingular, Centennial, MetroPCS, Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Cricket, T-Mobile, Revol, U.S. Cellular
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| New Horizon Towers |
50
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Texas, Louisiana, Iowa
|
unavailable
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| TowerCo |
48***
|
United States
|
unavailable
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| Bay Communications |
34
|
New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
|
T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint Nextel
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| Foresite |
11
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Southeast United States
|
unavailable
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| Collier Enterprises II L.L.C. |
5
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Florida
|
unavailable
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*ClearChannel’s site count reflects first-quarter figures and includes only physical tower sites. The company says it has more than 60,000 sites avaialbe for co-location when its billboard properties are factored into the count. |
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| * SubCarrier’s tower count includes 208 owned towers and 325 towers under management. | |||
| **TowerCo sold 424 towers to SBA during the second quarter but was in the process of acquiring more than 3,000 towers from Sprint Nextel in a deal that closed during the third quarter. | |||
