UPDATE Inside Towers is hearing from readers about our top story on Wednesday titled: “The Check Is Not in the Mail as Payment Delays Could Threaten 5G Deployment.”
Sitetracker executives agree the problem of site developers who stretch out payments, often with no notice, is getting worse. Sitetracker’s project and asset software platform enables users to manage many jobs at once, from site acquisition, to obtaining ground leases, to construction, and network modification. Their customers range from large carriers to towercos and small contractors, so they’re seeing the payment issue from all sides.
Sitetracker CEO Giuseppe Incitti said they’re seeing a lot of 90-day payment terms turn into 120-days. He agrees with NATE members who have voiced concerns to their association that there’s little or no negotiation on payment terms that can often be changed while the work is in-progress.
“If you have a contract, they can change payment terms via email. It doesn’t change the price of the work you’re doing,” he tells Inside Towers. “No service provider is going to stop their work,” so they’re stuck.
The payment issue is having a “huge” impact on the industry and does have the potential to hamper 5G work, according to Incitti. Part of the problem is, the job management software many operators use is “antiquated,” and designed for the world of 100,000 macro towers, but not the estimated 800,000 small cell sites coming over the next five years.
The old systems hamper the invoicing process and can let 30 to 40 days go by before a purchase order is issued; that must happen before the invoicing process can start, explained Incitti. “The processes in place must be enhanced,” Incitti explained, saying companies like carriers, towercos and others in the wireless ecosystem chain, such as service providers that subcontract work, “have a responsibility to pay contractors and vendors on time, just as vendors have a responsibility” to meet their obligations.
The problem has been occurring for a while, but is now intensifying. “There’s been no real pushback,” Incitti said. “There’s not been a huge incentive for companies to speed up payment terms. I would argue there should be.”
(ed: *Sitetracker is an Inside Towers advertiser)
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
July 27, 2018
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