American Tower v. Univ. of Iowa and Connectivity, in Court Over DAS Buildout

In December 2013, American Tower Corp. (AMT) entered into an agreement with the University of Iowa to install and operate two DAS networks for the Hawkeye’s football and basketball venues—Kinnick Stadium and Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The relationship between the two parties quickly soured from that point on.

In August 2015, the University of Iowa notified it was “immediately terminating the agreement” with AMT due to the company’s failure to complete the project in a timely manner, according to The Gazette. This prompted AMT to file a lawsuit against the University in March 2016, arguing the original contract should still be in effect.

AMT contends that there were no construction deadlines or timeframe for the completion of the project. It also contends that “factors beyond [their] control” contributed to the project’s slow progress, including narrow carrier budgets and the university’s lack of cooperation in the project.  

In October, AMT amended the lawsuit to include Connectivity Wireless—the company AMT was originally partnering with, to complete the DAS projects—and claims Connectivity persuaded the University to drop AMT from the project, according to The Gazette.

“If you decided to give AMT another couple of months, I can assume that they would get into construction but possibly with two men and a truck,” reads one e-mail from Connectivity’s vice president of sales and marketing, which AMT cites in its amended lawsuit. The two DAS networks are to be completed in each venue by mid 2017. Connectivity Wireless partnered with U.S. Cellular to build the networks.

February 20, 2017