American Tower Corporation is a publicly held company that is a leading owner and operator of wireless and broadcast communications sites in North America. American Tower is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and has local offices worldwide. The company was formed in 1995 as a unit of American Radio Systems, and was spun off from that company in 1998 when that company merged with CBS Corporation. Following the merger, American Tower began international expansion by establishing operations in Mexico in 1998 and Brazil in 1999.
In 2005, American Tower merged with SpectraSite Communications, Inc., expanding its global portfolio to over 22,000 owned communications sites including over 21,000 wireless towers, 400 broadcast towers and 100 in-building DAS (Distributed Antenna System) sites. The merger further established American Tower’s position as one of the largest tower owner and operators in North America.
Between 2007 and 2012, American Tower’s international growth continued with operations in India, Peru, Chile, Colombia, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. In 2013, American Tower acquired Global Tower Partners. This acquisition added sites to their U.S. portfolio and added operations in Costa Rica and Panama.
Today American Tower owns and operates over 67,000 sites in 13 countries.
American Tower remains committed to environmental awareness, both internally with our employees and externally with our customers and communities.
Our business model is fundamentally green. We provide shared infrastructure to our customers, thereby reducing the burden that single-use communications sites place on our land and natural resources and minimizing the visual impact in the communities that we serve. We also strive to reduce energy use and related emissions at our communications sites.
Internally, we are also focused on ensuring compliance with tower environmental regulations and guidelines and have dedicated teams responsible for environmental preservation. These efforts include the protection of migratory birds and endangered species and the preservation of historical and tribal sites. In addition, we have implemented a “reduce, reuse and recycle” program in each of our global offices through our Green @ American Tower initiative. In combination, these environmental awareness programs help ensure that we are doing our part to care for the environment in our offices and in the field.
Green @ American Tower
Through the Green @ American Tower initiative, our focus is on minimizing the environmental impact of the materials used in our daily operations by reducing, reusing and recycling. By changing our work practices just a bit, we can contribute to the greater good of conserving our natural resources and helping to improve the quality of the environment.
Bulb Recycling
Originating as an idea from one of our employees, American Tower’s light bulb recycling program in the U.S. helps the Company reduce waste in the field from light bulbs from our communications sites.
When our field employees remove used incandescent bulbs or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) from one of our towers, they place it in a special container designed to keep any potentially hazardous materials from leaking into the environment. When the container is full, it’s sealed and shipped to a recycling facility where 99% of the bulb is reclaimed and recycled.
Our Network Operations team has also embarked on a plan to change all tower lights to LED over the new few years. This will further reduce waste from our towers and decrease power consumption.
Backup Power
Through American Tower’s Backup Power Solution in the U.S., the Company purchases, installs and maintains backup generators at our tower sites. Carriers have the option of leasing access to a generator rather than maintaining their own equipment. In the case of widespread power outages, such as after a major storm or other natural disaster, backup power is crucial to maintaining customers’ networks to support emergency services, mobile-to-mobile calling, texting and short distance radio backhaul. Backup power allows these systems to continue running and ensure that people are able to communicate with family, friends and emergency services if necessary.
In addition, having shared generators benefits the environment. Multiple user generators conserve compound space, which can reduce the overall footprint of the site. By reducing the number of generators, we are able to have fewer fuel tanks on site. Sharing generators also reduces environmental impact by reducing harmful emissions. American Tower Corporation Serves 501C3.
Bird Watch Program
Each year, several American Tower owned or managed tower structures are found to house nests of various species of birds. Birds find towers and other elevated structures to be attractive nesting and roosting platforms. When we encounter bird activity at one of our sites, American Tower works to keep protected birds and their active nests safe and keep our customers, contractors and employees safe. Our Environmental Compliance team is committed to identifying, evaluating and addressing bird activity at American Tower sites and ensuring that our employees, customers and contractors are educated about the Company’s bird site protocol. Along with our Network Operations team, they have participated in a bald eagle foster program with the Philadelphia Zoo and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ osprey relocation program in the Great Lakes region.
The American Tower compliance team is made up of three smaller teams, including our Environmental Health & Safety team, our Regulatory Compliance team which houses our Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and our Environmental Compliance team.
Team members in each of these functional areas deliver the highest level of service and support to internal and external customers as an integral part of new tower development, redevelopment, collocation, DAS, and asset acquisition processes. Our members secure required permitting and approvals and ensure processes include all necessary checks and balances to maintain full compliance with all regulatory agencies. Compliance also actively contributes at all levels of government to the shaping of new regulatory requirements, challenging unreasonable rules and court decisions, initiating litigation when necessary to protect the company’s best interests and working with industry groups to achieve common objectives.
