AT&T, Crown Castle Close $4.83 Bln Tower Deal

(RTTNews) - AT&T, Inc. (T) said Monday that it has closed its deal to lease rights to about 9,000 of its company-owned wireless towers to Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) as well as the sale of about 600 AT&T towers. AT&T received about $4.83 billion at closing.

Under the terms of the leases, Crown Castle has exclusive rights to lease and operate about 9,000 AT&T towers. Crown Castle also has full operating rights to and responsibilities for the towers. AT&T will sublease capacity on the towers from Crown Castle, with access to additional reserve capacity on the towers for future use.

AT&T expects no significant impact to financial results from the deal. The company will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including opportunistic share repurchases and repayment of commercial paper.