American Tower Continues International Growth

You probably think that American Tower is big here in the US, but do you know about the company’s presence in 16 other international markets?

American Tower just received clearance from India’s Department of Telecommunications to acquire almost 9,000 towers from Idea Cellular for a total of INR40 billion ($584 million) according to developingtelecoms.com. The closing of this deal will mean that the company has completed the second and final stage of its acquisition of 20,000 towers from Idea and Vodafone India. Just last month, the government approved American Tower buying around 11,000 towers from Vodafone for a sum of INR38.5 billion.

After this recent acquisition, ATC now operates some 68,000 towers across India, according to rcrwireless.com.

“Notably, there is a rising trend of telecom companies to shrug off the tower infrastructure to wireless infrastructure companies like American Tower, Crown Castle International Corp and SBA Communications Corp. This is because it helps telecom companies to avoid huge outlay of money in maintaining the expensive infrastructure and rather channelize resources on service delivery,” according to Nasdaq.com.

American Tower is also set to acquire transmission towers from Telkom Kenya — as part of the company’s expansion plans — and the Kenya market will represent the company’s fifth in Africa and the 17th globally; the company also has a presence in The Netherlands, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.

Up to 723 transmission towers will be purchased for an undisclosed amount, according to the same article.  – Radio