Sprint Nextel sells towers to TowerCo

For around $670 million in cash Sprint Nextel agreed to sell approximately 3,300 transmission towers to TowerCo.

“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.”

“These are great towers concentrated in large metropolitan markets throughout the U.S. and will benefit as wireless communications continue to grow,” said Richard Byrne, TowerCo’s CEO.

Under the deal, Sprint will lease the use of the towers back from TowerCo in a long-term agreement. Sprint hopes that this move will not only provide it with more operating cash flow, but will also allow it to focus on its core services rather than dealing with the physical network infrastructure. Sprint currently has 53 million subscribers and operates its network using CDMA and iDen technologies.

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