Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's coming National Broadband Plan will propose up to $25 billion in new federal spending for high-speed Internet lines and a wireless network for police and firefighters as part of a broader plan that appears to be a win for wireless companies.

The plan will also offer a variety of ideas for expanding Americans' access to affordable Internet over the next decade. Mr. Genachowski has been slowly releasing details about the plan, which will be released in mid-March, and last week suggested that Congress spend $12 billion to $16 billion for the wireless Internet network for police and firefighters

American Tower announced that it will increase its core business reinvestment in 2010, during the fourth quarter and full-year 2009 earnings conference call. With access to $1 billion in internally generated funds, AMT expects to construct from 1,200 to 1,600 new sites during 2010, in addition to acquiring tower portfolios.

"Our first priority is to invest this cash back into our business. We will seek to invest in our infrastructure in 2010 to ensure that we can scale to support our growth," said Tom Bartlett, executive vice president and chief financial officer for American Tower. "We are focused on driving growth in our core business by investing in our existing sites as well as new tower assets."

AMT will use $300 million to $350 million on capital projects, $50 million on land purchases and $165 million to $205 million on other discretionary projects, including building sites, Bartlett said.

The government is collecting another round of applications for broadband stimulus funds, but it won't go far enough to get broadband to all the people who need it.

You might recall that the total amount earmarked for the broadband stimulus package was $7.2 billion, and that the goal was to bring broadband to people who did not have access and/or to help those who had access available but could not afford it (as opposed to those who simply don't want it). There were more than 2,200 applications for the first round but only a few grants have been awarded and many of those are for fiber to the home.

Tycoon Carlos Slim's America Movil (AMXL.MX) and Spain’s Telefonica (TEF.MC) are among 17 companies that have signed up to bid for wireless spectrum being auctioned in Mexico later this year.

Other smaller telephone and cable companies have registered too for the auction, according to information released on telecommunications regulator Cofetel’s website www.cofetel.gob.mx late on Wednesday.

The auctions are at the center of a government push to stoke lackluster competition in an industry long dominated by Slim. America Movil is the leading wireless operator in Mexico, with Telefonica a distant second.

After years of delay, the auction of spectrum in the 1.7 GHz and 1.9 GHz bands is key to operators that want to expand their services and offer increasingly sophisticated products like wireless video and Internet.

Network operators are not expected to produce a dramatic rise in capex spending in 2010. However, that doesn't mean infrastructure investment will be insignificant or nonexistent. Rather, providers intend to fund projects that promise big payoffs as the economic recession starts to fade. And it shouldn't come as a surprise that those plans center around wireless and fiber.

Most analysts don't think providers will beef up their capex budgets. Investment bank UBS, for example, in January called the outlook "subdued." Mike Jude, program manager at Frost & Sullivan's Stratecast unit, agreed.

"I'm projecting about a 10 percent reduction in capex investments for 2010, which I think is likely to continue through about 2011 with an uptick in 2012," he said.

The key, of course, is that those are estimates for overall activity.

InSite Wireless Group L.L.C. received an unspecified round of funding from Catalyst Investors that it plans to use to continue to grow its business, including building more towers and distributed antenna systems and acquiring tower assets.

While the companies are not disclosing the investment amount, Chris Shipman, a general partner at Catalyst, told RCR Wireless News that the private-equity firm usually invests between $10 million and $20 million. Shipman and Todd Clapp, also a general partner with Catalyst, will join InSite's board of directors

In what will likely otherwise be an unremarkable year for media ad spending, mobile marketing is expected to surge in 2010 as the number of portals, such as iPhone apps, multiply, an industry analyst said Monday.

"We believe that this will finally be the breakout year after all the other breakout years we heard about in the past," said Kip Cassino, Borrell Associates VP of research and development.

Speaking at Borrell's 2010 Local Online Advertising Conference in New York, Cassino said he expects mobile marketing to double this year, rising from 4% to 8% of all online marketing. By 2013, about half of all online ad dollars will be spent on mobile, he said.

"By the next decade, we think mobile devices are going to replace computers, " said Cassino, explaining that the number of iPhone apps alone - which give advertisers opportunities to target consumers - has grown from 30,000 to 150,000 in just one year. "You won't buy a laptop anymore. Online will be moving."

Cellular South has completed its acquisition of Alabama-based Corr Wireless Communications. The acquisition will expand Cellular South's footprint through North Alabama and Georgia. For now, Corr Wireless will continue to offer wireless products and services under its existing name.

The Addendum 2 update of the Telecommunications Industry Association's TIA-222-G tower structure standard, known as Rev. G, has been published and is available to the public, Carlo Franceschino, P.Eng., told an audience at a Nebraska-Iowa Wireless Association seminar, held Jan. 26 in Ankeny, Iowa.

In a seminar called "The Wireless Industry's Path to Rev. G," Franceschino discussed how the new standard would impact the design and deployment of cell towers. The standard essentially was changed to keep up with advances in engineering theory and to be in alignment with international standards.

"The biggest change between Addendum 2 and Addendum 1 is an increase monopole shell resistance. We are looking at tapered multi-sided poles; you will now get a significant increase in the resistance or capacity of the structure compared with Addendum 1," Franceschino said. "The other big change is requirements for existing structures."

Franceschino went on to say that an addendum to Rev G was needed to be a part of the International Building Code. Additionally, the American National Standards Institute requires a review of the standard every five years.

Addendum 2 includes a new wind map and a map to help with designing for ice-loading requirements. The biggest impact of the new standard, Franceschino said, is replacing allowable stress design with load and resistance factor design (LRFD).

"The new way, LRFD, has been used international for some time," he said. "What we are trying to do with LRFD is get a more accurate picture of the loads and the resistances of the structure and capture the uncertainty where the uncertainty actually lies."

The revised wind map in Rev. G relies on 3-second wind gust speeds, which are used by the IBC standard. Rev. F uses fastest-mile wind speeds, which are no longer measured.

"For the Rev. G to be implemented by IBC, we had to adopt the 3-second wind gust speeds," he said.

January 25, 2010 - ExteNet Systems, Inc. has raised $128.4 million in equity funding in a deal that transfers SBA Communications Corp.'s DAS assets to the Lisle, Ill. distributed antenna solution provider.

The new round of equity financing includes the SBA assets, as well as contributions from SSP Offshore L.L.C., an affiliate of Soros Fund Management L.L.C., and all five of the company's existing institutional investors: Centennial Ventures; Columbia Capital; Sevin Rosen Funds; CenterPoint Ventures and Palomar Ventures.

SBA acquired its DAS assets with the  purchase of Lightower in 2008. At that time Lightower had five distributed antenna system networks.

"The wireless industry is facing tremendous customer demand for new wireless services including expanded data, text, video, and voice applications.  All of these demands are creating strains on the wireless service providers' networks," said ExteNet's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ross Manire.

"This investment and the assets from SBA will allow us to significantly grow our business in a manner that supports wireless companies' development of more robust and efficient networks," Manire said.
"Since we first entered the DAS business in the fall of 2008, we have been seeking to materially increase our investment and capabilities in DAS," commented Jeffrey A. Stoops, SBA's President and CEO.

"Today we have accomplished that with our investment in ExteNet. We have had the pleasure of knowing and admiring Ross Manire and his team for years. ExteNet is a best in class DAS provider, with superior capabilities, technology, experience and project success. SBA will work closely with ExteNet to provide comprehensive customer solutions, and our goal is to provide increased investment to ExteNet over time as required," Stoops said.

The assets provided to ExteNet  include the physical networks as well as employees and existing contracts.

January 23, 2010 -Heavy rain, sleet, snow and wind teamed up yesterday to collapse two towers in New Mexico and one in South Dakota.

The 712-foot KELO television tower near Reliance, S.D., fell due to severe icing conditions, according to a station engineer.

He said the guy wires snapped under the weight of icy conditions. The tower then crumpled before the top 300 feet tipped over, striking a power pole. The structure was built in 1957.

The ice also brought down a Pierre police radio tower.

Three television and several radio stations were knocked out of commission in N. Mex. at about 6 a.m. yesterday as a 100-foot broadcasting tower on Long Ridge was blown over by high winds. Stations affected are the Alamogordo television station KVBA, which broadcasts on Channels 19 and translator 63, and two Albuquerque stations, KWBQ and My50TV. 

Several radio stations also rely on the tower, including KUPR, Alamogordo's Christian station, and KVCC, a Christian station based in Stockton, Calif. 

KVBA station manager Bill Eisner said he doesn't know when the tower will be repaired. He said it could take 30 to 60 days, depending on the weather.  

After receiving five competitive bids, Bay Communications, a portfolio company of Housatonic Partners, has completed the sale of 28 communication towers to SBA Communications. Although terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the tower company's principal said the assets received a "premium valuation."

"The timing was right. As the tower portfolio was comprised, we felt the towers had a significant cash flow but also presented a large upside potential for a potential buyer," said James Riley of Bay Communications. "There was a good mix of single-tenant and multi-tenant towers. The portfolio was in the right position to be sold at this point."

Bay Communications, a portfolio company of Housatonic Partners, is an independent tower developer and operator founded in 2003 by Riley in partnership with Housatonic Partners. Bay Communications was formed to build a communications tower leasing company with a portfolio of tower assets in New England and other select areas of the Northeast.

In the last decade, Bay put together a portfolio of tower assets in difficult zoning and permitting environments that provide strategic coverage for cellular carriers.

Riley will dissolve Bay Communications in the near future and then create a new entity to continue site development. Riley will ally with Housatonic Partners or another venture capital firm to capitalize the new effort.

Housatonic Partners is a private equity investment firm with more than $650 million in capital under management that invests in recurring services, media and communications industries. Housatonic's other investments in the tower industry include a majority interest in Liberty Towers, purchased in 2007. A management team formed Liberty to develop, build and lease new communications towers throughout the eastern United States.

Clearwire will take baby steps toward adopting speedier WiMAX 2 technology, according to the company's chief technology officer, who says the service provider might begin testing equipment based on the pending 802.16m standard in 2011. The IEEE could approve the new specification this summer, but Clearwire CTO John Saw says the company wouldn't begin commercial deployment until 2012. Industry observers say the new standard could reignite debate on whether LTE or WiMAX are "true" 4G networks.

Sprint Nextel Corp. and its partners are preparing to pump at least $1.5 billion more into Clearwire Corp., said two people familiar with the matter, adding yet more aid to a wireless broadband firm that has struggled to build out its next-generation network.

Sprint would invest $1 billion and its Clearwire joint venture partners, a group which includes Comcast Corp., Intel Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks LLC, would kick in another $500 million, said these people. Google Inc., which has been a key joint venture partner, isn't involved in the latest financing round, these people added. An announcement of the new investment could come as soon as this week.

Spokespeople from Sprint, Clearwire, Comcast Time Warner Cable and Intel declined to comment. Officials from Bright House and Google weren't immediately available for comment.

Sprint is Clearwire's majority shareholder and unlike its rivals, which have bet on a rival technology, Sprint's plans for a higher-speed data transmissions are heavily tied to Clearwire's success.

The infusion comes about 18 months after Sprint, Intel, Comcast and other partners first put $3.2 billion into Clearwire, which is building the first so-called "4G" mobile broadband network, which moves data at very high speeds. That deal gave Sprint and the others a big ownership stake in Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire, which lost $241.4 million in the quarter ended June 30. It will report its latest quarterly results on Tuesday.

Clearwire shares have traded as high as $9 this year, but tumbled to around $6.50 in recent weeks. It has about 2,100 employees. At the end of June, it had about 511,000 phone and Internet subscribers in the United States.

Clearwire had in recent months been trying to attract new capital from other telecom companies such as Deutsche Telekom AG, these people said. But those efforts didn't pan out.

Sprint, whose market capitalization has dwindled to just $8 billion, also hired bankers to help it raise money for a new Clearwire infusion. At one point it had shopped around an equity stake in Sprint, said one of these people. Instead, Sprint will use money from its own cash pile or raise new debt for the $1 billion investment.

Founded in 2003 by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, Clearwire was restructured in 2008 as part of a deal that combined the company with former Sprint operations and included the first cash infusion from Sprint and its partners.

The partners have been working to roll out a wireless broadband network across the U.S. Their plans are based on WiMax, a technology heavily promoted by Intel that is a longer-range cousin to Wi-Fi, the wireless technology built into most laptop computers. That effort has been costly and taken longer than expected.

The competition also is stiff; some consumers have been adopting technologies based on third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks offered by rivals such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone PLC. WiMax backers say it offers faster download speeds than 3G offerings and has a head start of two years or so over a comparable "fourth-generation" technology favored by many cellular carriers known as LTE, for long-term evolution.

Clearwire now markets its service in markets that include Las Vegas, Baltimore, Atlanta and Portland, Ore. Partners such as Sprint and Comcast also resell Clearwire's service under their own brands. Earlier this year, Clearwire hired William Morrow, an industry veteran with experience at Vodafone and other companies, as its chief executive.

T-Mobile USA is building up its 3G coverage, but it's feeling the effects of intense competition. The carrier lost 77,000 customers in the third quarter, ending the quarter with 33.4 million customers.

Contract churn was 2.4 percent in the third quarter - the same as it was in the year-ago quarter but up from 2.2 percent in the second quarter. T-Mobile blamed the uptick in part to "competitive intensity, including handset innovation, and the seasonal impact from the ‘back-to-school' window."

In a statement, President and CEO Robert Dotson said that over six months, the carrier will have almost doubled its high-speed coverage with the goal of reaching 200 million consumers by the end of this year.

T-Mobile says its entire 3G network will be HSPA 7.2 Mbps-enabled by the end of this year. In September, T-Mobile launched a trial of HSPA+ technology with a maximum download speed of up to 21 Mbps in Philadelphia.

The carrier says 2.8 million 3G-capable converged devices (such as the T-Mobile MyTouchTM, T-Mobile G1 and the T-Mobile Dash 3G) were on its network at the end of the third quarter.

Net income for the third quarter was $417 million compared with $425 million in the second quarter and $442 million in the third quarter of 2008. ARPU was $47 in the third quarter, down from $48 in the second quarter and $52 in the year-ago quarter. Data services revenue represented 21.1 percent of blended ARPU, or $10 per customer, which was up from $8.90 per customer a year ago.

The average cost of acquiring a customer, or CPGA, was $290 in the third quarter, which was in line with third quarter of 2008.

Yesterday, the carrier said it had cleared up service problems that were interfering with calls and text messaging for about 5 percent of its customers. Outages had been reported from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Shares in Ericsson had tumbled 8 percent to 68.10 crowns by 0915 GMT, casting a shadow over those of smaller rival Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA), which dropped 3 percent.

The Swedish company had hitherto proved resilient to the global financial crisis, managing to maintain profits and sales, but the worst economic crisis in decades finally caught up with it as capital spending cuts by operators fed through.

"We said (nine months ago) that it's unreasonable to think we won't get affected," said Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg, who added that falling sales were the result of telecom operators cutbacks earlier in the financial crisis.

October 7, 2009 - Tower site developer John Maguire's proposed 1,500-foot tower in McHenry County, Il. was to be the world's tallest self-supporting tower, but the plan has been grounded after the FAA reportedly stood in the way, stating that the tower would be a danger to Lake in the Hills Airport's aircrafts.

On March1, 2008, Mc Henry County Blog broke the story that Maguire, President of Oklahoma-based BMB Communication Management LLC held a private meeting with McHenry County College officials to entice them into inking a deal that could provide MCC with $6 million if he could purchase 3.6 acres of the college's property so that he could build the new broadcast tower.

According to blogger and retired Republican state representative Cal Skinner, then MCC President, Walt Packard, kept him from photographing any more exhibits of Maguire's presentation when he wrapped the boardroom's wire mesh safety windows in plastic before continuing with the tower proposal meeting.

On February 10, 2009, WirelessEstimator.com interviewed Maguire about the epic structure that was expected to cost in excess of $24 million to construct.  A total of 3.6 acres is what Maguire believed would be necessary for the tower's and compound's footprint. Preliminary design, he said, identified the leg to leg distance at 136 feet.
"It is expected," Maguire said, "that the structure will require between six to eight million pounds of steel. At $1.25 a pound, the steel alone is going to cost $10 million." 

At a February 18 public meeting,  preliminary design drawings and other details were provided to the MCC Board and an agreement was reached (See: 58-page presentation) . However, BMB placed a number of approval requirements in the contract that would allow it to walk away if they were not achievable.

The primary hurdle was to get the FAA Determination of No Hazard.

The FAA had raised concerns because the proposed tower would be in airspace
that pilots at Lake in the Hills Airport use if they miss their approach to a landing
and have to pull up and try again, Maguire said.

He said he believed the airport could change its procedures and order pilots to circle in another direction.

But his persuasive powers that worked with college officials couldn't sway the FAA.

During a MCC public board meeting in late August, the board was informed by its attorney that local BMB attorney Thomas Zanck had called with regard to BMB's broadcast tower.

Zanck had said that BMB's tower experts had determined that the FAA would likely not approve of what BMB had proposed, but according to board members, little else was made available to them.

"We knew going into this (was unlikely to be approved)," board member Barbara Walter said. "There is no sense in going on. I'd just let them out," she said, according to Skinner who was at the meeting.

"Let them do their thing and let them out of it," Board President George Lowe added.

Although there were due diligence expenses for BMB, their only obligation to MCC was to relinquish their $2,500 earnest money deposit.

Maguire has not replied to numerous emails regarding the tower. Zanck said he would not be comfortable discussing the FAA issue, but would contact his client and let him know of our interest.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Expanding broadband usage throughout the United States will require subsidies and investment in infrastructure upgrades of as much as $350 billion, a regulatory panel said on Tuesday. 

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is crafting a national broadband plan aimed at increasing usage in rural and urban areas. The report is due to be submitted to Congress in mid-February.

In a mid-course status report, an FCC task force said preliminary estimates indicate that investments in the range of $20 billion to $350 billion may be needed for wireless and landline infrastructure, depending on the speed of service. The range indicates the slowest speeds to premium fast speeds.

The report, which reflects information from dozens of workshops, did not provide initial recommendations. Panel members said they are still collecting data and studying how consumers are affected. It is expected to issue recommendations in the final report.

The potential costs for investment dwarfs the $7.2 billion set aside in President Barack Obama's massive economic stimulus package. The panel said transferring the universal services fund collected for traditional phone calls for broadband usage will not suffice.

September 29, 2009 - America's top tower company CEOs are optimistic about the outlook for the industry for the next five to 10 years, primarily because of the nation's insatiable desire for broadband services.

"What is going on is that we had the most important event in our history come to clarity last year which was true consumer adoption of real broadband data services," Jim Taiclet, CEO of American Tower Corporation, said during a panel discussion at PCIA's 2009 Wireless Infrastructure Show last week.

"What that is doing for our sector is while we continue to enjoy continued growth from the voice side of the service and will for some to come, I think we are really going to get a true second leg of growth over the next five to 10 years in the United States," Taiclet said.

"For the first time in this industry the device is driving consumer behavior, it's not the price point," Marc Ganzi, CEO of Global Tower Partners agreed. "It puts an enormous amount of pressure on networks. You have to have new sites; you have to have indoor coverage; you have to have particular small radius outdoor coverage."

"We have to as an industry address where networks are going, how they are evolving and how ultimately the device needs to be as close as possible to the antenna," Ganzi said. "We've got to think about DAS (distributed antenna systems) and smaller towers."

W. Benjamin Moreland, Crown Castle International's CEO also equates the industry's growth curve for many years to come will be a product of America's desire to view everything on the internet on their iPhone or netbook. 

"In years to come I'll look back on this year as the year that mobile turned into an entertainment device," said CEO Jeffrey Stoops of SBA Communicaitons.

"Prior to the iPhone there were Blackberries and a lot of different data users, but they never really drove the content, they never drove the bandwidth. We've now entered the mobile entertainment phase of our lives. That's pretty exciting because that's high use, big bandwidth and a lot of consumption," he said.

CEO Richard Byrne, CEO of TowerCo, and the newest member of the "View From the Top" tower company leaders, said ten years ago when he was at Nextel he observed a presentation that showed where the industry was heading over the next 25 years.

He said the chart identified that voice was going to increase at a decreasing rate and become 5% of the traffic on the network.

"It was just mind boggling at the time," Byrne said. "I think that's what we have in store for us."

Disfigured by consolidation and bankruptcies following the telecom slowdown in 2001, the industry has weathered America's failing economy and has shown that today it has a proven and robust business model, several speakers said.

"Fortunately, for all of us, we have a business model that is durable and has been tested in this recession and continues to grow," said Moreland.

Stoops concurred, stating, "Not only did the business models come through unchallenged, but they have proven out to be extremely resilient. I think all of us have hit our numbers and increased guidance. It's been a decent year."

It was noted by Stoops that Sprint is reinvesting in its network and their colocations for Q4 are increasing. It was generally agreed that one of 2009's saviors was a fully funded Clearwire building out in multiple markets.

In discussing company operating efficiencies, Ganzi said that Global Tower Partners trimmed  its SG&A 15% while growing revenues by 25% and reducing employee count by 10% to 126 people.

He said that part of their success is attributed to an IT team of eight people that have developed processes to provide quicker and more efficient electronic transactions.

Both Moreland and Byrne cited back office efficiencies in cutting down operating expenses as well. Crown's current headcount to manage their 23,600 towers is 1,200, down 30 from last year. Byrne said their 3,200 towers are managed by 62 employees.

The five CEOs said acquisitions are just one part of their capital expense strategies, and each acquisition is a case-by-case buy. Neither Taiclet nor Moreland discussed opportunities in India. It has been reported that both companies have been doing due diligence on a deal for Aircel Cellular, worth between $1.6 and $2 billion.

Taiclet said that the capital expense budget for American Tower for building new towers and assets in 2010 will continue to be $200 to $250 million, but if additional financing was necessary his company could easily go to the capital markets.

Moderator and PCIA CEO Michael Fitch's question regarding the Federal Communications Commission's inquiry into whether tower owners trafficked in a competitive marketplace was summarized by Ganzi: "The participants on this stage don't control the marketplace.  A lot of towers built today for carriers are in the hands of private owners and the majority of them are in the hands of carriers."