Sprint Nextel has agreed to sell nearly all its cell phone towers to a private-equity-backed firm called TowerCo in a deal that will generate about $670 million in cash for the struggling wireless carrier.

The nation's third-largest wireless provider said Wednesday it plans to lease space on the towers for its wireless phone and broadband operations, which it said was cheaper than owning the towers outright.

In recent years, wireless carriers have moved away from owning their own cellphone towers. Instead, companies like American Tower and Crown Castle International and smaller players like TowerCo have taken over ownership of towers and leased them to carriers.

"By leasing rather than owning these network facilities, we can better focus on our core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers," said Bob Azzi, senior vice president, Field Engineering and Operations, Sprint Nextel. "Significantly, this transaction provides Sprint Nextel with additional liquidity which gives us greater flexibility in managing our company."

Sprint Nextel said it will finalize the number of towers being sold and the price when the sale closes within 90 days.

1. Posted by man1234	Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:04 pm
So is this going to affect Sprint customers?
2. Posted by IOWA	Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:37 am
Bad Move Sprint.
3. Posted by McGirk	Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:55 am
It is a bad move for Sprint, but apparently they feel they need the capital.
4. Posted by bgreif	Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:06 pm
wow iowa, no defending Sprint on this one? thats how bad they suck, they can't even afford to keep their own towers, they feel the need to rent their network, so what happens when they can't afford to rent the tower? Their service degrades, and keeps degrading, so in case you were wondering, their service area keeps getting smaller and smaller, until alas, they don't provide service, good luck Sprint
5. Posted by man1234	Thu Jan 01, 2009 2:07 am
wow iowa, no defending Sprint on this one? thats how bad they suck, they can't even afford to keep their own towers, they feel the need to rent their network, so what happens when they can't afford to rent the tower? Their service degrades, and keeps degrading, so in case you were wondering, their service area keeps getting smaller and smaller, until alas, they don't provide service, good luck Sprint ok i have had enough of this. AT&T provides horrible coverage okay. i dont care what their map looks like in comparison to sprints. i go to places where AT&T would have no service while my sprint phone would pull a bar or 2. not to mension i cannot hear people clearly when they have 2 bars on an at&t phone, while with my sprint phone 1 bar works fine! AT&T is also extremely over priced. I can get a hell of alot more with sprint and the quality is betterrrr. I dont care about what facts you bring to me with you and your AT&T. i had a horrid experience with them, and for you to come into this forum and bash sprint, its ridiculous. nobody is caring about AT&T in this forum, clearly. Who would care for a company that over priced and over rated anyway. they are so desperate that half their phones are refurbished on their website, making it look as if they have a bigger selection. yeahhhh. And sprint has faster internet and data. yeah thats a fact! so i dont want you to come back into this forum with some useless information, which is just argument provoking.
6. Posted by bgreif	Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:00 pm
Sorry, I had a bad experience with Sprint, I was with Sprint for just over 10 years and never knew what cs really was, all they basically ever told me was to pay my bill, which I always did, they would quote me one price and it was always more than what they said it would be, true enough it sounds like Sprint has gotten better since I've been with them, my cuz has Sprint and has the simply everything plan with one line, his last bill was over $300 and has never bought one single download, is it me or is there something wrong with that? Don't get me wrong, I believe Verizon provides good service aswell, however I had a bad experience with their phones keep breaking on me at no fault of mine, I would have the phone for a week and it would start saying "searching for service" which it never found, my mother has Sprint, they talked her into a 2 yr contract for a new phone, the battery barely last a half hour of talking and they refuse to do anything about it. So I guess what I am saying so far I've had at&t for over a year now and travel all over the place and never had a problem with customer service, it may turn up in the future that I may experience bad service with them aswell, it was said in another thread that all service providers suck, I have a tendency to believe them, because Sprint was awesome besides the bill always being more than they said, and the phones are outrageously priced for what I got, I spent $200 on a lil Samsung flip phone, and that was after my $150 discount for the 2 yr commitment, it really didn't do much more that make / receive calls, which I really didn't have any problem with. I tether my at&t phone to my computer at home and it works very well, never tried that with a Sprint phone so I have no idea how well that works, I've heard Verizon is pretty fast too, however their phones never worked long enough for me to find out, I'm not bashing any service provider, just simply letting you know what works for me, and of course what works for me, might not work for someone else. There is alot of variables in there.
7. Posted by man1234	Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:09 pm
i do agree with you about the upgrade program from sprint, they have ridiculously over-priced phones, and taking money from retail is like nothing. Iowa you can confront my again if you want on this issue, but my opinion says the same. It sucks.
8. Posted by IOWA	Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:25 pm
Lol BGrief charges in here with no actual facts about how things work. do you even know the difference between cdma and gsm? when you break it down customers resigning with sprint end up getting a better deal because not only do they get 150 off, they get to choose between a 100 dollar bill credit per line or a 10 percent discount on thier bill for 23 months. my family all has att but it's funny if we ever take a trip to the boonies who has service? me. oh, and take a wild guess who owns towerco.
9. Posted by bgreif	Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:17 pm
Just so you know, I work for at&t and I DO know how things work, and just a wild guess on who owns towerco, at&t? I don't know we buy so many different companies its hard to keep track
10. Posted by DonLouie	Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:44 am
What does you spending too much for a phone have to do with rented towers, why is an 8 month old article that isn't affecting any service now bumped and with references to past service issues from a non customer. That's just plain hateration
11. Posted by sprintisbad	Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:09 am
Sprint probably will not last out the year. Bad service, bad connections and bad customer service. Even their touted Instinct has numerous problems. There is a separate forum online for those owners. Find all about it on the Sprint discusion forum. One of the people there has a link to a dedicated forum just for Instinct users.
12. Posted by IOWA	Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:00 am
Lil off topic are we?
13. Posted by brandt00	Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:15 am
So, when they sell the towers, will it affect the reception? I was planning to move to sprint, but if it will inhibit reception, then what is the point? Do you really believe sprint will be bankrupt in a year? I am very confused on what to do. Verizon is too expensive, as ATT, but if Sprint is going out, then they will be the leaders, more than they are now.
14. Posted by man1234	Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:24 pm
So, when they sell the towers, will it affect the reception? I was planning to move to sprint, but if it will inhibit reception, then what is the point? Do you really believe sprint will be bankrupt in a year? I am very confused on what to do. Verizon is too expensive, as ATT, but if Sprint is going out, then they will be the leaders, more than they are now. no. sprint will be fine. dont worry about it. and they all are fine. but if ayone was going to be bankrupt im guessing it would be tmobile, considering they have the least amount of customers.
15. Posted by brandt00	Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:52 pm
Thank you for responding. I am looking into get the HTC pro since it seems that the Pre is going to be taking a lot longer than what I wanted. A friend of mine, who works at a noncorporate sprint store, called me today to tell me that she can order the Pre on the 15th. That is for the stores to order for their stock. It isn't going to be released yet, but it is up for ordering. Who knows when it will be distributed. I asked her several times about whether or not it was the "pre" or the "pro" and she def. said the pre. I am tired of waiting, but if I buy a HTC then I can't upgrade until 2 years. I am nervous about switching with all of the bad talk about sprint, but I know a lot of people who have sprint and they really like it.
16. Posted by man1234	Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:59 pm
dont be nervous, you have 30 days to try it out. plus if you dont like the phone within 30 days, you can exchange it for a different one - no questions asked.
17. Posted by brandt00	Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:07 pm
sounds great. thanks again. It is nice having a place to go for advice.

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