Crown Castle

Last updated
Crown Castle Inc.
Company type Public
Industry Telecommunications
Founded1994;30 years ago (1994) in Texas
Headquarters
Houston, Texas
,
United States
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$5,840 million (2020)
Increase2.svg US$1,678 million (2020)
Increase2.svg US$942 million (2020)
Total assets Increase2.svg US$38,768 million (2020)
Total equity Increase2.svg US$9,461 million (2020)
Number of employees
4,500 [1]  (2017)
Website crowncastle.com
Footnotes /references
[2] [3] [4]

Crown Castle Inc. is a real estate investment trust and provider of shared communications infrastructure in the United States headquartered in Houston, Texas. Operating with 100 offices worldwide, its network includes over 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber systems. [5]

Contents

History

Crown Communications (1980-1997) and Castle Tower (1994-1997)

Crown Communications was founded in 1980 by Robert and Barbara Crown, natives of the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree. Crown Communications built, sited, owned and maintained cell towers across the United States; within Pittsburgh and its surrounding region, the company had a near monopoly on cell towers. [6] [7]

Castle Tower was founded in 1994, starting with 133 Houston-area towers, and initially backed by two private investment firms. Among its first operational purchases was the transmission sites of the BBC, where Castle and French communications firm TDF Group outbid NTL Incorporated. [8] [9] [10]

In 1997, Crown Communications merged with Houston's Castle Tower Corporation to form Crown Castle International. The terms of the merger stipulated that Castle would buy out Crown Communications, though the name of the company would be changed to Crown Castle and that the company would continue to operate with a strong presence in the Pittsburgh area. [6] [11] [12] The merger of the two firms, completed in January 1998, more than doubled the assets of the now-merged Crown Castle. [13] [14]

Crown Castle International (1997-2015)

On August 31, 2004, Crown Castle completed the sale of its UK subsidiary, Crown Castle UK, to National Grid Transco plc for over $2 billion. [15] [16] National Grid Transco plc was renamed to National Grid plc in July 2005, while Crown Castle UK was renamed National Grid Wireless in October 2005.

On January 12, 2007, Crown Castle completed the acquisition of Global Signal Inc., another U.S. tower operator which was based in Sarasota, Florida. [17]

On December 11, 2011, Crown Castle announced an agreement to purchase NextG Networks, Inc. for nearly $1 billion. NextG had over 7,000 distributed antenna system nodes on-air at the time of the agreement with another 1,500 nodes under construction as well as rights to more than 4,600 miles of fiber optic cables. [18]

On September 28, 2012, Crown Castle entered a tower leasing agreement with T-Mobile US. The deal leases 7,200 wireless towers to the company for a term of 28 years in exchange for $2.4 billion. After the deal ends in 2040, Crown Castle will have an opportunity to purchase the towers for an additional $2.4 billion. [19] Similarly, on October 20, 2013, Crown Castle entered a tower leasing agreement with AT&T Mobility. The deal leases 9,700 wireless towers to the company for a term of 28 years in exchange for $4.85 billion. Crown Castle also gained the right to acquire the towers outright in the future for $4.2 billion. 600 towers will be acquired outright by Crown Castle in the future. AT&T will pay $1,900 a month per site to access the towers with rent rising approximately 2% per year. [20]

In 2015, Crown Castle expanded into small cell technology in order to boost the capability and widen the scope of its network. [21] [22] The acquisition of Quanta Fiber Networks (Sunesys) in 2015 gave the company access to over 10,000 miles of fiber in various metro areas like Los Angeles, Chicago, Silicon Valley and Atlanta. Prior to that, in 2014, the company acquired the 24/7 Mid-Atlantic Network with over 800 miles of fiber along the East Coast of U.S. [23]

Domestic-exclusive firm (2015-present)

Crown Castle International sold off its Australian assets in 2015, removing its international focus and making the company exclusively operational in the United States. The company sold its last towers to Macquarie Group for $1.6 billion, which after taxes and fees gave a net gain of $1.3 billion to the company. The sale was motivated to boost an expansion to its domestic operations. [11] [24]

On July 19, 2017, Crown Castle signed an agreement to acquire Lightower, a fiber network operator in the northeast U.S., for approximately $7.1 billion. The transaction increased Crown Castle's fiber network to approximately 60,000 route miles. [25] The buyout [26] [27] had a significant impact on second-quarter earnings reported in late July. Revenue increased by 3.3% and small cells increased sales by 42%. Crown Castle also announced a $3.25 billion common stock offering as well as a $1.5 billion sale of convertible preferred shares to help finance the Lightower purchase. [28]

Based on its 2019 revenue, in 2020 Crown Castle joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time, at number 496. [29]

Related Research Articles

AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., formerly part of AT&T Corporation, was a wireless telephone carrier founded in 1987 in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and later traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "AWE", as a separate entity from its former parent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vodafone</span> British multinational telecommunications company

Vodafone Group Plc is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.

Amphenol Corporation is an American producer of electronic and fiber optic connectors, cable and interconnect systems such as coaxial cables. Amphenol is a portmanteau from the corporation's original name, American Phenolic Corp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altice USA</span> American telecommunications and media company; spin-off of Altice Europe

Altice USA, Inc., commonly known as Altice, is an American telecommunications provider with headquarters in New York City, owned by the Franco-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi. The company delivers pay television, Internet access, telephone services, and original television content to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers in 21 U.S. states. Altice USA is based at One Court Square in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. The company's operational center located at Cablevision's former headquarters in Bethpage, Nassau County, New York, on Long Island. With its combined brands, Altice USA is the fourth-largest cable provider in the U.S., serving customers residing in the New York metropolitan area as well as in several Midwestern and Southern U.S. states.

Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Canadian crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, it provides wireline and wireless communications services, including landline telephone, mobile networks, broadband internet, IPTV, and security services. Through a subsidiary, SaskTel International, the company has also worked on telecom infrastructure projects in countries such as Argentina and the Bahamas, as well as being the lead implementation company for the communication and control systems of the Channel Tunnel between England and France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sprint Corporation</span> Defunct American telecommunications company

Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The company also offered wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile and Open Mobile brands and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators.

National Grid plc is a British multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, England. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom, where it owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission networks, and in the Northeastern United States, where as well as operating transmission networks, the company produces and supplies electricity and gas, providing both to customers in New York and Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SunCom</span> American mobile cellular provider

SunCom Wireless Holdings, Inc. was a wireless carrier that operated in the Southeastern United States since 1999 and in parts of the Caribbean since 2004. From the "About Us" section of the company's website:

Alaska Communications is a telecommunications corporation headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska. It was the first telecommunications provider in the state of Alaska to maintain a third-generation wireless network and the only provider in Alaska that owned fully incorporated infrastructure for the major telecommunications platforms; wireless communications, Internet networking, and local and long-distance phone service. Alaska Communications wireline operations include advanced data networks and an underwater fiber optic system. The Alaska Communications wireless operations included a statewide 3G CDMA network, and coverage extended from the North Slope to Southeast Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embarq</span> American technology company

Embarq Corporation was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long-distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers. It had been formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of Sprint Nextel until 2006, when it was spun off as an independent company. Embarq produced more than $6 billion in revenues annually, and had approximately 18,000 employees. It was based in Overland Park, Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frontier Communications</span> American telecommunications company

Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. is an American telecommunications company. Known as Citizens Utilities Company until 2000, Citizens Communications Company until 2008, and Frontier Communications Corporation until 2020, as a communications provider with a fiber-optic network and cloud-based services, Frontier offers broadband internet, digital television, and computer technical support to residential and business customers in 25 states. In some areas it also offers home phone services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvarion</span>

Alvarion Technologies Ltd. is a global provider of autonomous Wi-Fi networks designed with self-organizing capabilities for carrier-grade Wi-Fi, enterprise connectivity, smart city planning, smart hospitality, connected campuses, and connected events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airspan Networks</span> American telecommunications company

Airspan Networks is an American telecommunications company, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company develops Radio Access Network technology including the Sprint 'Magic Box' and cells for the Rakuten virtualized network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Corporation</span> Manufacturer of hardware for communications networks

Andrew Corporation, a former hardware manufacturer for communications networks, was founded by Victor J. Andrew in the basement of his Chicago, Illinois home in 1937, and further established in Orland Park, Illinois in 1953. Andrew was a renowned global telecommunications company that played a significant role in the development of wireless communication technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verizon</span> American telecommunications company

Verizon Communications Inc., is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 114.8 million subscribers as of March 31, 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATN International</span> American telecommunications company

ATN International, Inc. (ATN) formerly known as Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc., is a publicly traded telecommunications company that is headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts. It operates digital wireless, wireline, and both terrestrial and submarine fiber optic networks, serving markets that are geographically separated and technically challenging, such as the plains, deserts, and mountainous areas of the United States.

Lumos is a telecommunications provider, based in Waynesboro, Virginia; and High Point, North Carolina, United States, offering residential and business optical fiber internet services, VOIP telephone, web hosting, and digital television. The company announced a merger with North State Communications effective August 15, 2022.

Lightower Fiber Networks, founded in 2006, was a provider of telecommunications and IT services. It offered cloud computing, colocation hosting, and connectivity.

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, doing business as Shentel, is a publicly traded telecommunications company headquartered in Edinburg, Virginia. It operates a digital wireless and wireline network in rural Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

References

  1. ↑ "Crown Castle International". Fortune. Archived from the original on 2018-06-21. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  2. ↑ "Crown Castle International". Berkshire Partners. Archived from the original on 2014-10-11. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  3. ↑ "Crown Castle International Corp". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
  4. ↑ "Crown Castle International 2017 Annual Report Form (10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 26, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
  5. ↑ "About Us".
  6. 1 2 "With deal, Crown towers over others". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  7. ↑ "WHITE v. TOWNSHIP OF UPPER ST. CLAIR, 799 A.2d 188 | Pa. Cmmw. Ct., Judgment, Law, casemine.com". CaseMine. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  8. ↑ Adelson, Andrea (1997-11-03). "Vertical Real Estate". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  9. ↑ "BBC Sells Transmitter Business - The Media Leader". 1997-01-06. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  10. ↑ "Our History | Crown Castle". www.crowncastle.com. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  11. 1 2 "Crown Castle severs 'International' with its Australian tower unit sale". Wireless Estimator. 2015-05-15. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  12. ↑ https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/c/NYSE_CCI_1998.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  13. ↑ Scully, Sarah (2014-09-24). "With rising cellular data demands, tower company looks to alternative technology". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  14. ↑ "CROWN CASTLE INTERNATIONAL CORP - 10-K Annual Report - 12/31/1999". getfilings.com. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  15. ↑ "National Grid buys TV masts firm". BBC News. 2004-06-28. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
  16. ↑ "Form 10-K". Crown Castle. 2006-03-24. Retrieved 2016-08-05. On June 28, 2004, the Company signed a definitive agreement to sell its UK subsidiary ("CCUK") to an affiliate of National Grid Transco Plc ("National Grid"). CCUK's assets, liabilities, results of operations and cash flows are classified as amounts from discontinued operations for all periods presented. On August 31, 2004, the Company completed the sale of CCUK (see note 3).[ permanent dead link ]
  17. ↑ Crown Castle International Corp. - Crown Castle International Completes Acquisition of Global Signal
  18. ↑ Brow, Jay (2011-12-16). "Crown Castle Announces Agreement to Acquire NextG Networks". Crown Castle. Archived from the original on 2017-07-13. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  19. ↑ Rusli, Evelyn (2012-09-28). "T-Mobile Sells Rights to Towers for $2.4 Billion". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  20. ↑ De La Merced, Michael (2013-10-20). "AT&T in $4.85 Billion Tower Deal With Crown Castle". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  21. ↑ "Crown Castle Upside Seen In 'Small Cell' Expansion". Investor's Business Daily. 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  22. ↑ "Crown Castle (CCI) Planning to Expand Small-Cell Operations" . Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  23. ↑ "Crown Castle makes $1B bet on small cells with Quanta Fiber purchase | FierceWireless". www.fiercewireless.com. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  24. ↑ "Houston telecom giant scoops up wireless towers for $461M". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  25. ↑ "Crown Castle gets 'crown jewel' Lightower for $7.1B | FierceTelecom".
  26. ↑ CNBC (2017-07-19). "Tower operator Crown Castle to buy Lightower for $7.1 billion". CNBC . Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  27. ↑ "Tower operator Crown Castle to buy Lightower for $7.1 billion". Reuters. July 18, 2017. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  28. ↑ "Crown Castle International Corp. Makes a $7.1 Billion Fiber Deal". Fox Business. 2017-07-19. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  29. ↑ "Crown Castle International". Fortune . Retrieved 2020-10-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.