Sprint sells off it's towers?

[Geehee]

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/qp/pr/_a/sprint-nextel-announces-tower-sale-to/rfid124356846

[Sprint Nextel](javascript: (NYSE:S) today announced an agreement to sell approximately 3,300 towers to TowerCo for approximately $670 million in cash

Odd business move…

[PumiceT]

Maybe it’s more cost-effective in the long term to lease the use of the towers rather than own them?

[Geehee]

They better hope so…

[boxxa]

Don’t most phone companies lease their towers from Verizon or was that a thing of the past?

[Geehee]

@boxxa

Don’t most phone companies lease their towers from Verizon or was that a thing of the past?

only MVNOs really. Most companies seem to share tower access though, so you will see multiple cells on one tower.

[Nikuk]

cash now plus less overhead. if they locked up leasing for the services then :tup:

whats so odd?

[Geehee]

@Nikuk

whats so odd?

one of the big 3 sells off its towers and no longer controlls them. Take a look at all the MVNO’s out there that went belly up because they couldnt afford the rates the carriers wanted for tower access.

not that sprint isnt already heading in that direction.

I’m not saying it was a bad idea, just saying it was odd. Hopefully it works out for them, otherwise say hello to higher prices and no competition.

[Cavi_Mike]

Poor decision imo. Why do you think T-Mo is becoming such a huge player? Failing companies that make poor choices like this allow other companies to move in without having any infrastructure. It may look good in the immediate short term and maybe even put your company in the black but it’s only temporary and will actually hurt you worse down the road. But hey, give the CEO a huge bonus, he’ll fix everything.

[Nikuk]

@evolve

one of the big 3 sells off its towers and no longer controlls them. Take a look at all the MVNO’s out there that went belly up because they couldnt afford the rates the carriers wanted for tower access.

not that sprint isnt already heading in that direction.

I’m not saying it was a bad idea, just saying it was odd. Hopefully it works out for them, otherwise say hello to higher prices and no competition.

right right.

because they couldnt afford the rates the carriers wanted for tower access.
…if they were smart enough to get decent / cheap rates on access leases, then :tup:

If not, tick tick tick

[The_Russian]

@Cavi Mike

Poor decision imo. Why do you think T-Mo is becoming such a huge player? Failing companies that make poor choices like this allow other companies to move in without having any infrastructure. It may look good in the immediate short term and maybe even put your company in the black but it’s only temporary and will actually hurt you worse down the road. But hey, give the CEO a huge bonus, he’ll fix everything.

T-mobile rents tower space from AT&T for over 75% of its coverage.

[rage87]

Sprint isn’t really competition anymore anyway. All they are good for is helping me crush multipliers. This is actually a good move for them to do. They are most likely spending more money on maintenance and repair of those cell sites then they are actually helping them generate revenue. Now they will just turn around and use that $670m and lease those towers and hope that they can get back on their feet again…

…which I doubt because VzW just re-launched its PTT network, which is actually very impressive, so now the Nextel side of things will be losing customers as well.