Sprint Nextel today announced an agreement to sell approximately 3,300 towers to TowerCo for approximately $670 million in cash. Additionally, the two companies have entered into a long term leasing agreement where TowerCo will provide Sprint Nextel with wireless communications towers to support the company’s CDMA, iDEN and WiMAX networks.
“By leasing rather than owning these network facilities, we can better focus on our core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers,” said Bob Azzi, senior vice president, Field Engineering and Operations, Sprint Nextel. TowerCo’s location maps are available in Google Earth.
- American Tower Corporation has the most diverse site portfolio in the industry, operating approximately 19,500 tower sites in the United States and 3,200 in Mexico and Brazil (site locator).
- SBA Communications has participated in the development of over 25,000 antenna sites in the United States. Their site locator also has a map mashup.
- Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 22,000 sites in the U.S. and over 1,400 in Australia (tower locator).
CellCoverage.com lets every cell phone user submit specific areas in their communities, neighborhoods, and workplaces, as well as on the roads and highways they travel, where they would like improved cellular coverage. Radio-Locator has links to over 10,000 radio station tower data and website as well as 2500 audio streams.
Nextlink Wireless, a subsidiary of XO, provides broadband wireless services to service providers, business and governments. It is one of the nation’s largest holders of fixed wireless spectrum in the 28GHz-31GHz band and covers 95% of the population in 81 of the top markets. It has a range of up to 11 miles.
Tower operators Crown Castle and American Tower, which previously created a joint venture in FiberTower, have merged with First Avenue Networks in a deal valued at approximately $1.5 billion. First Avenue operates a “last mile” broadband wireless system in the 24/39 GHz bands.
First Avenue Networks (above) bought out the radio spectrum assets of bankrupt of Advanced Radio Telecom (at 39GHz) and Teligent (at 24 GHz) and now has 24/39 GHz licenses throughout the United States with deep coverage in 77 metropolitan areas.
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