Source: PRNewswire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SDC Capital Partners, LLC (“SDC”) announced today that funds managed by SDC have acquired a majority interest in IQ Fiber, LLC, a new residential fiber-optic internet provider headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The transaction provides IQ Fiber with significant equity funding to complete the first phase of its all-fiber network build, passing more than 60,000 homes in the Jacksonville area.

“We are thrilled to partner with IQ Fiber in its initial launch in Jacksonville and are excited about the larger opportunity in Northeast Florida and beyond”Tweet this

“Consumers deserve a smarter internet choice,” said IQ Fiber CEO Ted Schremp. “High-speed internet has become a necessity and is truly the heartbeat of the modern home. With the launch of IQ Fiber, Jacksonville residents will soon have access to a state-of-the-art, 100% fiber-optic network with gigabit upload and download speeds, simple subscription plans and service experts who live and work in our community.”

“We are thrilled to partner with IQ Fiber in its initial launch in Jacksonville and are excited about the larger opportunity in Northeast Florida and beyond,” said Clinton Karcher, partner at SDC. “IQ Fiber’s commitment to providing exceptional customer service, coupled with state-of-the-art fiber network infrastructure in an underserved market, creates a formula for success.”

IQ Fiber plans to offer simple month-to-month rates with no hidden fees, surcharges or surprise price increases. IQ Fiber’s three service plans will deliver symmetrical internet speeds between 250 and 1,000 Mbps, with whole-home Wi-Fi service always included.

Fiber to the home represents the state-of-the-art for the delivery of broadband services, yet it is accessible to only 36% of the U.S. population. Compounding the consumer challenge, approximately 83 million Americans can only access broadband through a single provider. With today’s announcement, Jacksonville will soon have the freedom to choose a 100% fiber-optic network with simple, no-hassle plans, supported by local experts.

About IQ Fiber

IQ Fiber, LLC, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is a private equity-backed fiber-optic internet service provider. IQ Fiber is transforming the residential broadband market by offering a 100% fiber-optic network; stress-free plans with no data caps, contracts or hidden fees; and live, local experts to solve any problem that may arise. IQ Fiber plans to rapidly expand its residential fiber network throughout Northeast Florida. For more information, visit iqfiber.com.

About SDC Capital Partners

SDC Capital Partners, LLC is a global digital infrastructure investment firm. SDC invests in data centers, fiber networks, wireless infrastructure and associated businesses, with a focus on opportunities to leverage its deep operational expertise in partnership with exceptional teams to create value. For more information, please visit www.sdccapitalpartners.com.

Source: Business Wire

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) announced today its new digital infrastructure strategy, combining a multi-cloud approach with third-party data centers to drive technological speed, agility, and scalability for its customers and employees. Central to the digital infrastructure strategy is Wells Fargo’s selection of two industry leaders as its public cloud providers: Microsoft Azure as its primary public cloud provider and Google Cloud providing additional business-critical public cloud services.

“Launching our new digital infrastructure strategy is a critical step in our multiyear journey to transform Wells Fargo, making it easier for customers to do business with us and creating a better working experience for our employees,” said Saul Van Beurden, Wells Fargo’s head of Technology. “The Wells Fargo of tomorrow will be digital-first and offer easier-to-use products and services, and all of that starts with driving speed, scalability, and enhanced user experience through the next generation digital infrastructure strategy we’re announcing today.”

Wells Fargo will leverage the Microsoft Azure platform to empower the creation of innovative solutions across all bank functions and provide a trusted and secure foundation for strategic business workloads. The two companies will partner to use critical data and analytics services to accelerate Wells Fargo’s digital transformation, including delivering enhanced customer experiences and enabling increased employee collaboration. Google Cloud will drive advanced workloads, and complex artificial intelligence and data solutions, allowing the company to move faster on driving personalized experiences for its customers and clients.

An integral part of the digital infrastructure strategy is a secure and compliant cloud platform that will provide protections to safeguard the data, privacy, and financial assets of Wells Fargo’s customers, with a focus on data confidentiality.

“Wells Fargo and Microsoft have a longstanding relationship, and we are excited to build on that foundation to accelerate Wells Fargo’s digital transformation journey,” said Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s Chief Commercial Officer. “Microsoft Azure is empowering financial services institutions with its secure, compliant, and scalable platform for industry cloud solutions needs, including for advanced and complex workloads. By standardizing on the Microsoft cloud and trusting Azure as its most strategic and primary cloud platform across all lines of business, Wells Fargo will be able to advance its key business and technology transformation priorities across core areas like managing risk and control, personalized banking, and the digital branch of the future.”

“We’re proud to support Wells Fargo on its multi-cloud journey, with artificial intelligence and data solutions that will not only transform the business but also power the future of personalized experiences for its customers and clients,” said Rob Enslin, president, Google Cloud. “Google Cloud is committed to providing financial institutions with cloud technology that empowers banks to evolve, and to create digital experiences that customers demand.”

As an additional element of the new digital infrastructure strategy, Wells Fargo will transition to a set of third-party-owned data centers, while the company’s longer-term aspirations are to rely predominantly on public cloud. These facilities will complement the public cloud offerings of Microsoft and Google Cloud with both private cloud and traditional hosting services to create a secure, resilient, and flexible technology foundation for the company’s transformation.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment, and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortune’s 2021 rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com | Twitter: @WellsFargo.

Source: LightReading

American Tower’s CEO believes the edge computing market could eventually grow into an opportunity worth billions of dollars every year. And he said his company is well positioned to take advantage of that situation.

“Given that our attractively located tower sites have existing access to fiber and power while already hosting multiple communications providers, they are a natural candidate to represent hub locations for these low latency wireless edge data centers,” Tom Bartlett said Thursday during American Tower’s quarterly conference call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of his remarks.

Further, he hinted at his company’s interest in pursuing the market through a number of avenues, including potentially major partnerships.

“The early data points we are seeing throughout the industry all suggest that this can be a meaningful, scalable opportunity that can represent solid upside for us in due time,” he said. “We intend to explore global joint ventures or partnerships to effectively leverage these inherent opportunities, and we continue to work through a number of different scenarios on that front.”

The open RAN driver

Bartlett also suggested that the trend toward open RAN technology in the wireless market is helping to drive the edge computing opportunity by separating the elements of a wireless network into pieces that could benefit from edge computing capabilities at the base of a cell tower.

“It’s different types of equipment that our customers are able to put together to be able to load onto the site, and at the base level, at the baseband unit, which is where the data center element comes in,” he said.

However, he cautioned that it’s a market that is still in its infancy. “We really are at the beginning of it,” he said.

American Tower is one of the nation’s three big cell tower owners. As a result, it’s among the companies that stand to benefit from network operators’ increased 5G spending for midband spectrum like 2.5GHz and C-band.

Rising revenues

“By all accounts, 2022 should be a good year for the domestic tower leasing industry,” argued the financial analysts at MoffettNathanson in a recent note to investors. “Between initial C-band deployments, T-Mobile making progress with its 2.5GHz rollout, and Dish Network entering the early stages of its greenfield network build, there is reason for optimism that growth will accelerate for all players.”

Indeed, American Tower’s rival, Crown Castle, just last week lifted its 2021 expectations for site rental revenues; adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA); and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) due to those exact reasons.

American Tower, for its part, on Thursday posted first quarter financial results showing EBITDA and AFFO significantly ahead of most financial analysts’ expectations.

“American Tower’s results today confirm that the ramp in carrier activity that we expected is indeed happening: application volumes have increased, which should drive accelerating gross organic revenue growth as the year progresses and into 2022,” wrote the financial analysts at New Street Research in a note to investors.

This growth in its core business makes American Tower’s bet into edge computing even more noteworthy. The company just this week announced it expanded and upgraded the data center it purchased two years ago in Atlanta.

5G players eye the edge

But American Tower isn’t the only tower company eying the edge computing market. For example, SBA Communications has purchased several data centers and is now selling computing services under its new SBA Edge brand.

Meantime, wireless network operators like T-Mobile and Verizon are either building their own edge sites or partnering with companies that do.

However, the financial analysts at MoffettNathanson recently argued that most edge computing services can be supplied by a relatively small number of regional data centers rather than hundreds or thousands of tiny data centers on the edge, as American Tower’s Bartlett suggested.

“We don’t doubt that edge computing is a real trend,” they wrote in a recent report to investors. “Instead, our suspicion is that most edge computing needs can likely be met with regional deployments in locations like traditional data centers rather than deployments at the base of a cell tower.”

April 22, 2021

Remember the Rokr E1? It debuted about 16 years ago and resulted from a partnership between Motorola and Apple. Back then, Motorola was a big deal in phones – along with Palm, RIM (which is BlackBerry, btw) and Nokia. The Rokr E1 failed, largely due to the lack of letters.

I remember thinking it odd that Motorola and Apple partnered particularly since the Rokr E1 was so bad. Thanks to hindsight, I must also have thought “Maybe Apple’s learning what goes into making the cellular components of a phone.” Eighteen months later, Apple disrupted the cellular and computing industries.

Which brings me to this news. A month ago, Nokia and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a collaboration in which “engineering teams from both companies will research how the combination of Nokia’s RAN (Radio Access Network), Open RAN, Cloud RAN and edge solutions can operate seamlessly with AWS Outposts.”

Per the press release, the project will run Nokia’s 5G virtualized distributed unit (vDU) and 5G virtualized centralized unit (vCU) on AWS Outposts using Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) for far edge cloud or on-premises deployments. (Kubernetes is a container management platform.)

In 5G New Radio (NR), baseband processing is split between the DU and the CU. The goal there is to put those processing elements in physical locations where it makes the most sense (costs the least and/or provides the greatest functionality). This functionality is likely to be virtualized as well, but what the radios do is not changing that much.

The third part of the collaboration will build a “proof of concept for an end-to-end solution with Nokia’s 5G Cloud RAN and 5G standalone Core network running on AWS, where end enterprise users can leverage 5G for use cases such as an industrial application.”

Undeniably, Nokia has thirty plus years of cellular radio expertise which I would guess must transfer into its virtualization efforts. And it has a large existing market that is under threat thanks in no small part to the very mobile operators it sells to.

Ostensibly, a 5G RAN service (CU/DU) is another way for AWS to position itself as an enabler of 5G services. Already, they have outposts, wavelength zones, local zones, snow-family devices, a partnership with Athonet for 4G/5G core, and one with Federated Wireless for connectivity-as-a-service (which Federated does not directly have since they only run a SAS).

Will AWS launch 5G NR RAN-based service? Who knows. All I’m suggesting is that AWS with all the resources at its disposal, is more than capable of disrupting the cellular market. Yesterday’s news is a good example – Dish is using AWS to build its 5G network.

Source: Datacenter Frontier

There’s a new public company shopping for a $1 billion acquisition of a digital infrastructure company. InterPrivate IV InfraTech Partners Inc. raised $250 million in its IPO Friday on the NASDAQ market, and will operate as a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), with a large blank check to go shopping.

The InfraTech SPAC’s leadership is packed with veteran executives from the data center, telecom tower and hardware sectors. The CEO of the new company is Kevin Timmons, who led the buildout of hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity for Microsoft and CyrusOne. Former CyrusOne CEO Gary Wojtaszek and data center design pioneer Peter Gross are co-founders and board members for InfraTech, whose leadership also includes co-founders of American Tower Corp. and Barracuda Networks.

In the company’s debut at the NASDAQ, Timmons said the InfraTech fund intends “to change the world by turbocharging the growth of critical technology through a business combination in the ever-expanding digital infrastructure space.”

InterPrivate is an active player in the use of SPACs, investment vehicles that raise capital from investors for the purpose of acquiring a private company. InterPrivate IV InfraTech Partners Inc. is one of four SPACs sponsored by InterPrivate to capitalize on investment trends. It will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol IPVIU, and its units opened trading Friday at about $10 a share.

The InfraTech SPAC is the latest example of the huge investment flowing into the data center sector, with global financial players raising billions of dollars in capital to fuel the data economy.  InterPrivate assembled a team of experienced executives to capitalize on this trend.

“We believe that several secular trends exist that will continue to drive a relentless demand for increasing growth of the world’s digital infrastructures,” InterPrivate said in an SEC filing. “We intend to seek digital infrastructure companies that are on what we believe to be a promising growth path, driven by a sustainable competitive advantage, with significant opportunities for acceleration by a partnership with us.”

The InfraTech fund said it will “focus on target companies with an enterprise value of $1 billion or more” in the technology, media and telecom infrastructure sector. But the initial acquisition could be just a first step towards larger M&A ambitions.

“We intend to seek companies that can serve as a platform for future synergistic acquisitions,” InterPrivate says in its SEC filing. “We will actively seek opportunities to combine businesses that can expedite each other’s growth, either through complimentary technology offerings or through geographic scale, as well as businesses that offer the potential to expand services to underserved markets, geographies, and/or demographics.”

More SPACs Means More M&A

SPACs can provide a quick route to the public securities markets for privately-held companies in the digital infrastructure sector. This has been the case in two data center M&A deals:

• Vertiv went public in early 2020 when it was acquired by GS Acquisition Holdings, a SPAC created by Goldman Sachs and executive David Cote.
• Cyxtera was acquired this month by a SPAC controlled by investor Starboard Value in a deal that values Cyxtera at $3.4 billion,

The formation of multiple SPACs appears likely to boost the number of publicly-held companies focused on digital infrastructure. Increased data center M&A was one of the trends DCF highlighted in our annual forecast, Eight Trends That Will Shape the Data Center Industry in 2021.

InterPrivate believes it has lined up a team with the experience and connections will make the InfraTech fund an attractive partner. “We believe that our team’s extensive experience in designing, building, operating, and automating some of the world’s largest digital infrastructures will make us the partner of choice for companies looking to capitalize on this opportunity,” the company said.

Timmons has designed, built, and operated some of the world’s largest technology infrastructures. He led Microsoft’s global data center team as General Manager of Data Center Services, refining the company’s data center network, introducing a lightweight modular data center design. At CyrusOne, he led a “massively modular” design that helped the company win hyperscale deals. Timmons was also employee number four for GeoCities in 1996, serving as Director of Operations for the early web site platform.

Source: RCR Wireless News

Bluebird will deploy fiber to over 500 cell towers

Regional operator Bluebird Network plans to extend fiber access to more than 500 towers in order to support the expansion of 5G networks in a number of markets in Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas.

“The 5G movement is underway, and Bluebird plans to be a major player in enabling its rollout and subsequent adoption. Our commitment to deploy fiber to over 500 towers will further strengthen Midwest businesses and residents with enhanced network access to leverage the latest technology driving digital transformation,” said the company’s President and CEO Michael Morey in a press release. “We understand these connections are no longer a luxury, they are a necessity for businesses. Many applications require low latency to ensure optimal performance, requiring a concerted effort to move access closer to end-users. Bluebird is stepping up its network capabilities to ensure the communities we serve have the connectivity needed to embrace the digital economy.”

Headquartered in Columbia, MO, Bluebird Network has more than 9,800 fiber route miles in more than 60,000 on-net and near-net buildings and 151 points of presences in the Midwest. Last year, the company completed a 61-mile expansion in Springfield, MO in January, followed by a February fiber expansion in Jefferson City, MO. The following month, Bluebird completed its acquisition of the Illinois Network Alliance (INA).

The carrier, at the end of 2020, also acquired the ColoHub Data Center from Geneseo Communications, located in Bettendorf, Iowa.

“In 2020, we expanded and densified our fiber network infrastructure across several territories throughout the Midwest,” Morey said of the data center acquisition. “Expanding our data center offerings, fortified now with a second facility, is part of our mission to empower businesses and offer a total communications solution.”

Source: Horizon Connects

COLUMBUS, Ohio – March 2, 2021 – Horizon has acquired Infinity Fiber, LLC, anchoring the continued expansion strategy into Indiana. The acquisition provides connectivity to multiple data centers in Indiana and augments Horizon’s existing fiber infrastructure in downtown Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana.

Infinity Fiber’s long-haul network adds about 450 route miles to Horizon’s existing 4,500 miles of fiber. Horizon can now offer connectivity on a unique fiber route from Chicago’s 350 E. Cermak data center to South Bend, Indiana and Indianapolis, which will tie back to Horizon’s fiber backbone in Columbus, Ohio.

“Horizon is excited about acquiring Infinity Fiber to further cement our market expansion plan for Indiana,” said Jim Capuano, Chief Executive Officer for Horizon. “The Infinity network complements our existing fiber assets in the Indianapolis market, while also providing native connectivity to the region’s data centers. The combined network assets accelerate our plans for Indiana significantly. Our aggressive strategy for expansion and innovation is what has made us a premier fiber-optic broadband partner, and we continue to take the next steps to grow our high-quality, highly reliable services across the Midwest.”

Horizon will be offering speeds up to 400 Gbps, and soon, 800 Gbps across its entire network, including connectivity to Chicago and data centers in between, for carrier and enterprise customers, along with fiber connectivity in and around buildings throughout downtown Indianapolis.

“This unique asset is a game changer for our presence in Indiana,” commented Glenn Lytle, Chief Revenue Officer for Horizon. “We’ll be able to better serve our wholesale and carrier partners with a unique fiber route from Columbus, Ohio through Indianapolis to Chicago, as well as offer downtown Indianapolis enterprise customers direct cloud connectivity, Internet, Ethernet, and Hosted Voice products over our first-class fiber network.”

The acquisition has closed, and Horizon anticipates the network to be ready for services by Q2 2021. Partners looking to inquire about the network or services available are encouraged to visit HorizonConnects.com or email FiberSalesLeads@HorizonConnects.com.

ABOUT HORIZON

Horizon is a facilities-based, fiber-optic broadband service provider based in Ohio with expanding services across the Midwest. Operating 5,000 route miles of fiber, Horizon provides high-quality connectivity solutions for small to large enterprise and wholesale carrier customers, where high-reliability and high availability are critical.

The extensive network offers high speed Ethernet, Dedicated Internet Access, Hosted Voice and UCaaS, dark fiber, wavelength, and data center connectivity services. Horizon partners with carriers, government, healthcare, education, and enterprise businesses offering flexible and customizable fiber network solutions with a remarkable commitment to customer care and cutting-edge fiber-optic technology. For more information, visit horizonconnects.com.

ABOUT NOVACAP
Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading Canadian private equity firm with $2.6 billion of assets under management. The firm’s unique investment approach, based on deep operational expertise and an active partnership with entrepreneurs, has helped accelerate growth and create long-term value for its numerous investee companies. With an experienced management team and substantial financial resources, Novacap is well positioned to continue building world-class companies. For more information, please visit www.novacap.ca

Source: Capacity Media

Mobile infrastructure and wifi company Boingo Wireless is to become part of Digital Colony’s empire, which already includes FreshWave, Highline do Brasil and 50% of Zayo.

The private investor said yesterday that it will pay US$854 million for the company, and added that it will “continue investing in Boingo’s diverse network”.

Boingo CEO Mike Finley (pictured) said the deal “will deliver significant and immediate value to Boingo’s stockholders and concludes a robust strategic review process undertaken by Boingo over the past year”.

He added: “We believe Digital Colony’s expertise owning and operating digital infrastructure businesses, combined with its relationships, resources and access to long-term, private capital markets, will provide greater flexibility for Boingo to continue advancing its business strategy.”

The two sides said they expect the transaction to be completed quickly, in the second quarter of 2021.

The announcement came as Boingo, which is Nasdaq-listed, said revenue had declined 10% to $237.4 million in 2020 compared with the previous year, but adjusted Ebitda rose 1% to $83.5 million.

Boingo Wireless is in a similar market to Digital Colony’s London-based FreshWave, a unified brand adopted in January 2020 for three acquisitions, StrattoOpencell, iWireless Solutions and Spyder Facilities, bought between August 2018 and June 2019.

FreshWave, like Boingo, builds and operates wireless infrastructure, using technologies and infrastructure solutions including indoor and outdoor distributed antenna systems (DAS), small cell networks and macro cell towers.

Boingo reported yesterday, with its annual results, that it has completed a restructure into separate business areas.

Carrier services reported revenue down 7.0% to $107.7 million, with profit margin down from 44.4% in 2019 to 37.0%.

Military revenue of $76.8 million was up 2.5% compared to 2019, with a gross profit margin of 76.2%.

Boingo’s private networks and emerging technologies unit recorded revenue of $2.2 million, an increase of 10.4% on the previous year. Its multifamily unit revenue was $21.6 million, a decrease of 13.8%. Legacy revenue was $29.1 million, a decrease of 36.7%.

Finley reported: “The headwinds resulting from Covid-19 accelerated the anticipated decline in our legacy retail and advertising products as well as delayed progress on several projects into 2021.”

But he noted new business. The company signed a tier 1 carrier to a branch of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Long Island Rail Road, and “we signed a Wifi offloading contract with a Tier 1 carrier to begin to utilize Boingo’s Wifi footprint.”

He said that, following the Digital Colony acquisition, “our team at Boingo will continue to execute our strategy with access to more capital and resources to expand our network and robust suite of products and services. Following a year-long formal strategic process through a once-in-a-century pandemic, we could not be more thrilled with the outcome which we believe maximises value for our stockholders.”

Digital Colony, led by Marc Ganzi, and Swedish investor EQT infrastructure completed their $14.3 billion deal to buy Zayo in March 2020.

Source: Lexology.com

Source: TelecomTV

Vantage Towers, Vodafone’s neutral host spin-off with near-term IPO plans, is positioning itself as a “5G superhost” that can support the specific connectivity needs of enterprise users as well as wireless service providers.

“We remain focused on our goal of becoming a 5G superhost in Europe, offering bespoke solutions which enable 5G connectivity using our towers across various verticals, including manufacturing, healthcare, e-gaming and agriculture,” noted the company in a financial update issued early on Monday.

That towers portfolio now comprises has 82,000 macro sites in 10 markets across Europe with more to be added: 19,400 of the current macro sites are in Germany and are fully-owned by Vantage, while 22,100 in Italy are co-owned through its 33.2% stake in INWIT (Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane) and 14,200 are in the UK courtesy of its 50% stake in Cornerstone, which transferred to Vantage from Vodafone UK in January.

Its other markets are Greece, Portugal, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain (where it has struck a new five-year deal with industry body AOTEC, which represents more than 150 local and regional operators) and Ireland, where it has landed 10-year deals with Eir and Three Ireland for 250 and 200 future site tenancies respectively.

It’s also addressing the important challenge of in-building 5G connectivity, which is particularly important to enterprise users that want seamless service quality and coverage: Vantage noted it has deployed its “first 5G Distributed Antenna System (DAS) solution for a building complex in the Czech Republic where we will act as a neutral host to deliver efficient connectivity solutions.”

Vantage also sees significant new business opportunities from the growing IoT sector and has struck a 10-year deal in Germany to provide Sigfox with more than 350 new sites in the coming financial year, increasing to more than 500 by the end of the following fiscal year. Sigfox Germany currently has 4,800 sites for its “0G network.”

The company, which is due to list its shares on the public markets via an IPO before the end of March, reported revenues of €723 million for the nine months to 31 December and earnings before various costs but after lease payments of €394 million.

Now comes a critical couple of years for Vantage Towers, which, like the other neutral host companies, knows that scale and breadth are important for attracting large long-term deals. It has previously stated its intention to be the European market leader and to grow its portfolio through new builds and through acquisitions, and now says it has a warchest of €1 billion for such purposes.

Its main rival in Europe is Cellnex, which has splashed out billions in the past couple of years to attain a portfolio of 120,000 sites (including future builds): Earlier this month it announced a €5.2 billion deal to buy 10,500 sites in France, a market where Vantage currently doesn’t have a presence but where Orange is still to decide on its towers strategy. (See Cellnex splashes €5.2 billion on Altice’s French towers.)

The neutral host market looks set to play a crucial role in the development of the 5G and associated distributed telco cloud (edge) sector: Companies such as Vantage Towers, Cellnex and others, including American Tower, will all be vying to be the superhost that Vantage aspires to be, with geographic spread, pricing, customer relationship management and technical roadmap all factors that will provide opportunities for differentiation.

– Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV