The three publicly-traded tower companies, American, Crown Castle and SBA all have a substantial footprint of sites in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. American Tower and SBA spoke with Inside Towers last week to give their assessment of the damage and their efforts in trying to turn chaos back into order.
American Tower
“Of the sites we’ve been able to gain access to and inspect, it appears that the structural integrity of our towers has held,” Matt Peterson, Vice President, Communications, American Tower told Inside Towers. “However, a substantial amount of the carrier customer equipment on the towers and at the sites is badly damaged. This damage to carrier equipment and the loss of electrical power has resulted in very few cell sites being operational. American Tower has resources on the ground now who are helping with recovery efforts, performing full site audits on our 118 towers and identifying priority projects. Peterson said they are in active discussions with all of their customers to determine their priority sites and are working with the FCC, FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security on a coordinated response. “There is a lot to do and we are working closely with these partners to get as much done as soon as we can,” Peterson said.
SBA
SBA, with a roughly 100-tower footprint on the island, has already surveyed half of their towers and hopes to have the other half done later this week. So far, according to Lynne Hopkins, SBA’s Director, Corporate & Brand Communications, there are “no material issues” on structural damage to the towers themselves that would preclude service from being restored, but power remains an issue. Hopkins told Inside Towers, they are not only focused on the property they have down there but the people. SBA has sent teams to Puerto Rico to provide assistance for their resident employees. “It’s part of our corporate culture to be committed to helping our employees and communities who are in need, especially during these challenging times as well as our commitment to our business partners to work with them to ensure what needs to be done, gets accomplished.”
Jonathan Adelstein, CEO and President of the Wireless Infrastructure Association said the following to Inside Towers: “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone on the island of Puerto Rico. Our members and the entire wireless industry are working to support everyone affected by Hurricane Maria so that recovery efforts can proceed as quickly as possible. In times of disasters, it is vital that our mobile communications networks stand strong and provide the service our communities need. Our members are doing all they can to ensure that public safety agencies and citizens have access to the necessary communications networks. The structures are sound – the issue is getting power to the facilities and getting access to them.”
October 2, 2017
October 2, 2017
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