Broadcast Tower Owners, Builders, See Growth Ahead
Wireless operators’ demand for space on broadcast towers will remain strong as new spectrum licensees begin to deploy service, tower industry officials told us. Broadcasters that own towers typically lease extra space to other tenants such as cellular carriers and FM stations.
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But winning AWS auction bidders and those who succeed in the coming 700 MHz auction probably will bypass broadcasters for larger-scale tower operators, Don Doty, Stainless LLC CEO and National Assn. of Tower Erectors chmn., said: “Companies like American Tower, who have 20,000 towers… That’s the kind of company these new license holders are approaching now. They're calling them up and asking help with deployment in a certain metro area.”
Broadcasters still can benefit, particularly in cities where a tall tower can cover a large service area, Doty said. New tower building standards and tower modifications let broadcasters load towers with more transmitters than before, he said: “Modifications to many existing structures will allow them to receive additional revenues.”
Not all TV station groups own towers. Ion Media, among the largest broadcast license holders, leases space from other companies in most of its markets, a spokeswoman said. Most VHF stations own their towers, and UHF station owners split about 50-50 between tower owners and renters, Doty said.
Broadcast tower owners’ likeliest prospects as tenants will be winning bidders in the 700 MHz auction that results from the DTV conversion, American Tower Vp & Gen. Mgr.-Bcst. Group Peter Starke said: “Any type of telecommunication service that requires a line of sight for a large area is better suited on big broadcast towers,” he said: “We think our high-altitude sites are still en vogue.”
Fewer new tall towers are being built due to high costs, Starke said. Plus the cost and hassle of getting permits and local zoning approval leads many broadcasters to lease instead, he said.
Another drag on tall tower construction may result from broadcasters’ experiments with distributed transmission systems (DTSs) -- cellular-like networks of smaller broadcast towers. Such systems don’t need tall towers, but DTS doesn’t make sense for all markets, Starke said. In Houston, Oklahoma City or similarly flat areas served by tall towers, DTS isn’t needed, but it can solve problems created by uneven topography or tall buildings, Starke said. His group is working with a broadcaster leasing 4 cellular towers to test DTS, he said: “The challenge is the technology.” Viewers expect a high-quality image delivered to their TVs, and high- altitude towers do that, he said: “The expense of building out multiple sites, or having multiple leases, all those factors play into whether DTS will be successful or not.”