Overbuilding Archives - EMFSA

American Tower backtracks, cancels program designed to thwart nearby towers

Editor — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 17:14:04 +0000

Source https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/american-tower-backtracks-cancels-program-designed-to-thwart-nearby-towers

by Mike Dano |

Jun 20, 2018 12:01pm

American Tower’s program sought to prevent the construction of towers close to its existing towers. (Mike Dano/FierceWireless)

American Tower, one of the world’s largest tower companies, said yesterday that it will end a program launched late last month that was designed to prevent its contractors from constructing new towers within a half-mile of one of its existing tower sites.

The reversal comes after widespread opposition to the program from a variety of industry players. Indeed, as noted by Wireless Estimator, even AT&T and Verizon voiced serious concerns with American Tower’s initial program, launched May 31.

The issue appears to boil down to increasing competition in the cell tower industry. Companies including AT&T and Verizon are moving forward with efforts to create new tower options beyond industry heavyweights like American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA Communications. Specifically, last year Sprint parent SoftBank and Lendlease Group announced a joint venture to buy or manage roughly 8,000 towers in the United States. And Verizon and AT&T announced a joint venture late last year with Tillman Infrastructure to build and share hundreds of cell towers.

American Tower’s initial program appeared geared as a response to the threat from those efforts. At the end of last month, the company sent a letter aimed at preventing the contractors it works with from building nearby towers that could compete with American Tower’s existing cell towers.

“I am writing to you today to share my concern regarding the practice of building towers in close proximity to existing towers,” American Tower’s Jared Morley wrote in the letter, which is available here. The letter was sent anonymously to FierceWireless and was cited by publications including Wireless Estimator and Inside Towers. “American Tower (ATC) believes that building such towers is unnecessary, short-sighted and reckless. It harms existing landlords, needlessly clutters otherwise peaceful neighborhoods, wastes precious resources and does nothing to improve the coverage, capacity or quality of today’s stressed wireless networks. It could even delay the badly needed deployment of next-generation wireless technologies. This practice is not sustainable or scalable, is bad for our communities and bad for our country, and reflects poorly on the entire wireless industry.”

In the letter, Morley offered an amendment to the company’s existing Master Contractor Agreement that prevented contractors from developing new towers within a half-mile of an existing American Tower site. “Given the circumstances, we believe this request is fair, reasonable and straightforward and we will not accept revisions to the amendment,” Morley wrote. “We ask that you return the amendment via DocuSign to us by June 15, 2018. Failure to return by the deadline will result in an immediate change to your vendor approval status, up to and including removal of the ability to be hired for work directly by ATC and the ability to access any ATC site on behalf of others.”

Although American Tower reportedly sought to tweak its new program following complaints from those in the industry, the company confirmed yesterday that it will not move forward with its program “effective immediately.”

“While we think this change reflects the right approach at this juncture, American Tower still strongly believes the proliferation of proximate towers to existing towers could result in future regulation and local zoning changes that impede the deployment of necessary infrastructure,” Morley wrote in the company’s letter yesterday. The full letter is available at the bottom of this article. “However, we continue to support our customers’ efforts to enable the next-generation of wireless technologies and are committed to working in partnership with you to achieve this result.”

Despite American Tower’s backpedaling, the issue nonetheless raises the prospect of increased competition in the tower industry, which is hoping to cash in on the wireless industry’s collective move to 5G wireless network technology and increased network densification. Those trends will likely require wireless carriers to upgrade the equipment at macro cell towers as well as deploy additional equipment—including small cells—in between those macro towers.

The analysts at Wells Fargo pointed to those issues on Sunday in a note to investors, just before American Tower ended its program: “It is surprising on some levels because one has to wonder if these tower builders are not a competitive threat (as was the continued message at WIA) then why react so strongly? It seems like with the ‘Not in My Backyard’ (NIMBA) theme alive and well the best way for the public tower cos. to fight new competitors would be to show up at the zoning hearings in local municipalities and question why such a town needs two structures when there still is room on the existing tower incumbent’s structure,” they wrote. “It is a trend worth watching but it definitely felt like some sort of nerve was touched here to elicit such a reaction.”

See the letter : https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/american-tower-backtracks-cancels-program-designed-to-thwart-nearby-towers

Background:

American Tower Noncompete Clause Rattles Tower Service Contractors

The post American Tower backtracks, cancels program designed to thwart nearby towers appeared first on EMFSA.

American Tower Noncompete Clause Rattles Tower Service Contractors

Editor — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 21:00:15 +0000

Note updated news (20 th of June)

American Tower backtracks, cancels program designed to thwart nearby towers https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/american-tower-backtracks-cancels-program-designed-to-thwart-nearby-towers

American Tower Noncompete Clause Rattles Tower Service Contractors: By J. Sharpe Smith, Senior Editor

June 12, 2018

The wireless infrastructure industry is abuzz over a letter contained in an email that American Tower sent to its contractors last week, expressing its concern about the practice of building new towers near existing towers.

The letter responds to wireless communications carrier efforts to lower their antenna space rental costs by building towers near sites where they already have antennas and where they believe the rent is too high. The letter from American Tower says the practice of placing new towers nearby, known as overbuilding, is “not sustainable or scalable.”

“American Tower believes that building such towers is unnecessary, short-sighted and reckless,” the letter from Jared Morley, director of supply chain at American Tower reads. “It harms existing landlords, needlessly clutters otherwise peaceful neighborhoods, wastes precious resources and does nothing to improve the coverage, capacity or quality of today’s stressed wireless networks.”

The letter includes a noncompete amendment to American Tower’s master contract agreements. By signing the amendment, a contractor agrees to not to work for a wireless communications provider on any “new wireless communications asset” within one-half mile from an American tower site. If that agreement is violated, American Tower reserves the right to remove the contractor from its preferred contractor list.

Contractors have until June 15 to sign the agreement and until Aug. 17 to discontinue any work that is not allowed in the agreement.

A battle between a public tower company and the carriers is not really too surprising. It has been coming on for a while.

Last year, the carriers took direct actions to lower tower costs. In November 2017, AT&T and Verizon opted to use Tillman Infrastructure to build towers for their use and committed to leasing and co-anchoring the towers. The purpose was to make it possible to relocate equipment to new towers as leases for space on current towers expire. As recently as April 26, AT&T continued to move away from the traditional tower building and leasing model by signing a build-to-suit agreement with CitySwitch. Under the agreement, CitySwitch will begin tower construction as early as the second half of 2018 and will lease completed sites to AT&T.

SoftBank Group’s $400 million joint venture with Lendlease Group to develop or buy 8,000 towers and rooftop sites will reduce site rental costs for Sprint.

Tower contractors have been caught in the middle of the feud between AT&T and American Tower and essentially will have to choose sides. Some said they believe the letter was heavy-handed, and they feel blindsided by it. Some also expressed concerns that the amendment is too vague. Although the letter asks them not to participate in the development of any new towers, the amendment uses broader language, referring to new wireless communications assets. They say, the broader language would keep contractors from laying fiber, or installing in-building wireless or outdoor DAS and small cell systems, within a half-mile of an American Tower site.

Some contractors also complained about the letter’s tight deadlines. For some, signing the noncompete amendment to the master contract will probably be a no-brainer. American Tower will provide them with far more work than any company overbuilding for the carriers. Some companies will no doubt test American Tower’s resolve and refuse to sign, while others simply do not know whether to sign the new agreement. Either way, the clock is ticking.

American Tower Noncompete Clause Rattles Tower Service Contractors

Notes by EMFSA:

Does the concern about the practice of building new towers near existing towers apply to South Africa as well?

American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of wireless and broadcast communications real estate. The company’s global portfolio includes over 150,000 sites and is experiencing steady growth. In addition to leasing space on towers, the company provides customized collocation solutions through its in-building systems, outdoor distributed antenna systems and other right-of-way options, managed rooftops and services that speed network deployment. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, American Tower has offices across the United States and in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa and Uganda.

Stats for 2011:

Ghana | 1,900+ towers

South Africa | 1,900+ towers

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