Verizon Sells Wireline Business to Frontier

U.S. operator Verizon Communications has confirmed plans to sell its wireline business in 14 states to Connecticut-based Frontier Communications. The transaction, worth US $10.54 billion, is expected to close within 12 months and includes the sale of all of Verizon’s wireline assets in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as some wirelines in California. These assets give Frontier 4.8 million access lines, doubling its size and making it the largest regional communications provider of voice, broadband and video to rural markets and smaller cities in the U.S. Verizon is holding on to its wireless assets in those 14 states and will retain a landline presence in the Northeast. Additionally, Verizon plans to lease the rights to over 11,300 wireless towers to American Tower Corporation, which will also purchase approximately 165 Verizon towers, for a total payment of US $5 billion.

Verizon is in a tight race to remain the leader in the U.S. telecom market. These deals will give the operator cash to help pay off the US $130 billion debt it incurred from last year’s acquisition of Vodafone’s U.S. wireless assets, as well as to help defray the US $10.4 billion purchase cost of wireless licenses purchased at the U.S. federal spectrum auction that ended on 29 January. It could also be that Verizon is feeling some pressure, perhaps from aggressive price-cutting by some of the other major U.S. operators, perhaps from the recent announcement of Google’s interest in entering the MVNO business.

Verizon’s wireless business currently generates 70 percent of the company’s revenues. Verizon is clearly narrowing its focus to its core business: broadband, wireless and internet.  It is of particular interest that the cell tower deal gives Verizon the flexibility to use towers only where they need to. As cell technology has evolved, fewer cell towers are needed to provide service. This has led to the use of a build-to-suit model in which rather than owning a portfolio of towers, a mobile operator instead leases space from a tower company that has built a tower specifically for it, located exactly where it is needed.  AT&T and T-Mobile have generated sizable funds over the past 5 to 10 years by selling off their portfolios of towers and engaging in build-to-suit with multiple tower companies. It appears that in this case Verizon has decided to follow their example.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues or to speak with the research team: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

American Tower Corporation Explores M&A Options in India

American Tower Corporation (ATC), a U.S.-based global provider of mobile telecommunications infrastructure, is exploring the possibility of acquiring India’s largest tower operator, Viom Networks, which is controlled by Tata Teleservices and has over 40,000 towers. ATC currently owns more than 12,000 towers in India and wants to expand its presence there.

As of year-end 2013, ATC had almost 28,000 towers in the U.S. and over 39,000 in 12 international markets. Its desired expansion into the Indian market could more than double the number of ATC’s towers outside of the U.S. India has the world’s fastest growing smartphone market due in part to the size of the country’s population and also because of the country’s development potential, both in terms of devices and infrastructure. Year-over-year smartphone adoption in India increased by 84 percent in Q2 2014, and further adoption seems very likely, as 71 percent of the market still uses feature phones. Furthermore, rural India still lacks strong network infrastructure.

ATC is venturing that in addition to operators upgrading existing infrastructure—as Bharti Airtel and Aircel did when they launched 4G services in some areas in India—there will also be a need for new towers as several of the country’s telecom operators start to show signs of expansion. Reliance Jio, which will launch 4G service across India early in 2015 as a broadband wireless access license holder, will need to have a large number of new towers built as opposed to upgrading existing infrastructure. ATC hopes Reliance Jio’s 4G launch will induce India’s other MNOs to accelerate their 4G service rollouts, which up until now have been proceeding at a sluggish pace. As 4G adoption becomes more widespread in India, data demand will increase. To satisfy customers’ needs, all of the country’s operators will need to add more towers to their networks in addition to upgrading existing sites. While many pieces of the puzzle, including tower purchases by Indian operators, need to fall into place for ATC to recoup its investment in the country, it appears that the timing is good for the infrastructure provider and that India’s mobile operators will also benefit from ATC’s move.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx