Crown Castle is set to acquire cell tower rival Global Signal in a stock and cash deal valued at $4 billion, a move that echoes recent consolidation amongst the big service providers. Crown Castle and Global Signal lease out space on their metal towers and other building sites to mobile carriers in the U.S. Consolidation will allow the two companies to better take adavantage of the increase in wireless traffic sure to come from the 3G networks carriers are in the process of rolling out. The combined company will be the largest in the sector with more than 24,000 towers. American Tower became the largest player in the space last year after it acquired Spectrasite--that company owns 22,000 towers.
For more on the Crown Castle deal:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)