News: 0175164411

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Verizon Leases Over 6,300 Wireless Towers To Vertical Bridge For $3.3 Billion (capacitymedia.com)

(Tuesday October 01, 2024 @11:26AM (BeauHD) from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)


Vertical Bridge has [1]acquired the rights to lease and operate over 6,000 wireless towers from Verizon for $3.3 billion as part of a 10-year agreement, with potential extensions of up to 50 years. Capacity Media reports:

> "Upon the completion of this transaction, these assets, together with our existing portfolio which includes thousands of young, purpose-built towers, enhance Vertical Bridge's position as a fast, friendly, and flexible colocation partner to the wireless industry," said Ron Bizick, President and CEO of Vertical Bridge. Terms of the deal provide Verizon access to additional space on the towers for future use.

>

> The US carrier said its latest deal with Vertical Bridge supports existing efforts to drive tower-related costs. "As the nation's largest mobility provider, we are well positioned with greater financial flexibility to invest in our business, return value to our shareholders and make the nation's best network even better for customers," said Hans Vestberg, chair and CEO of Verizon. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2024, subject to closing conditions.

Earlier this month, Verizon announced a deal to [2]acquire Frontier Communications for $9.6 billion .



[1] https://www.capacitymedia.com/article/verizon-vertical-bridge-deal

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/05/1924223/verizon-to-buy-frontier-for-96-billion-says-it-will-expand-fiber-network



How many are old and need work/replaced? (Score:3)

by chas.williams ( 6256556 )

The "young" towers aren't the problem. The old towers that need maintenance are the issue.

Re: (Score:2)

by timeOday ( 582209 )

They would need maintenance regardless of owns them, so the only issue there is pricing them correctly. But sharing the towers with other carriers (by way of this third party, Vertical Bridge) ultimately allows some of those costs to be shared too.

Great timing (Score:2)

by pcaylor ( 648195 )

I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but it was a brilliant idea to announce this the day after you have a huge network outage. Of course Verizon claims only 50,000 people had problems. But it still made national news.

Re: (Score:2)

by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) *

The only outlet reporting on that yesterday that I ran across was S2 Underground.

Curious, ain't it?

Re: (Score:2)

by smooth wombat ( 796938 )

The only outlet reporting on that yesterday that I ran across was S2 Underground.

Curious, ain't it?

Bullshit. It was on the front page of CNN's web site as well as reported by [1]AP [apnews.com], [2]CBS [cbsnews.com], [3]The Verge [theverge.com], and many others.

Perhaps if you'd use real news sources, you would have known this.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/verizon-outage-sos-mode-phone-service-b03c9b8615e0650669339daa2eaa1713

[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/verizon-outage-network-down-sos-mode-downdetector-map/

[3] https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258362/verizon-mobile-services-down-sos-mode

Re: (Score:2)

by Pascoea ( 968200 )

> The only outlet reporting on that yesterday that I ran across was S2 Underground.

The only outlet YOU ran across. I saw plenty of coverage from center, left, and right leaning sources.

> Curious, ain't it?

Nope. Barely curious enough to warrant this reply. Barely.

That's great (Score:2)

by necro81 ( 917438 )

That's great, until Jessie Eisenberg loses his cool and [1]goes after them with a chainsaw [youtu.be].

[1] https://youtu.be/Y_JcTg5mrEY?&t=106

Keep that receipt (Score:1)

by CEC-P ( 10248912 )

Do you think the agreement states that Verizon's service has to ACTUALLY WORK? I bet they didn't put it in there. I'd reject it, given recent events.

Re: (Score:1)

by opakapaka ( 1965658 )

The terms are likely the same as all of our hosting and colo contracts. Compensation for time down, not lost income, and 24 hours/best effort to resolve.

Verizon (and most consumer oriented ISPs) is actually way more reasonable. You can literally tell them what you think is fair within reason and they will credit it to your bill. There appears to be a TON of profit margin in the bill.

Not good (Score:1)

by KlomDark ( 6370 )

I don't see this ending well, throwing control of their towers to a skinflint investment house means they will be shedding people, expertise, and quality.

Re:Not good (Score:4, Insightful)

by omnichad ( 1198475 )

This is just a landlord hiring a property management company. Normally a great way to shift blame for mistakes, while reaping all the financial benefits. Except they're also going to be a tenant on their own towers.

<Deek> you GPL your homework? :)
<knghtbrd> yah =D
<knghtbrd> Anyone is permitted to use or modify my homework, but if they
distribute changes they must include the full machine-readable
source code ;>