CTI takes ownership of Mediacom Jacksonville tower

By Benjamin Cox on March 13, 2018 at 5:56pm

The next time you look up at a Jacksonville communications tower, it might not be operational.

CTI Towers Assets, a tower leasing company based in Franklin, Massachusetts, recently purchased the Jacksonville Mediacom tower, located at 1293 Massey Lane.

CTI CEO Tony Peduto told WLDS/WEAI that the Jacksonville tower was one of the first to be purchased. It was announced in November, as part of a larger deal where CTI purchased all of Mediacom’s 360 towers

The Jacksonville tower was one first towers to be closed on December 20th.

Peduto talks about CTI joining Mediacom.

“We are now an affiliate of the Mediacom as a result of the transaction. As a result of that, we are expanding a portfolio in the Midwest. We now have over a 1,000 towers that we manage. We formed in 2011, we started working with the Comcast towers. Since that time we have purchased towers in Iowa and Oklahoma, the Mediacom deal and  other cable companies as well.” said Peduto.

Once towers were purchased, crews from CTI went in to fix or dissemble the obsolete equipment.

“We have actually gone out and surveyed every towers in our portfolio, so we have had guys on the street now for over six months. They have gone out if there are any repairs needed. A lot of the cable equipment that was left there was no longer in use, because the cable companies have used fiber optics instead of through the air.  As a result of that, we have gone out and cleared off of the dead equipment. Tried to clear enough space for potential tenants to know there is enough space on the tower. Sometimes they will look up and think the space is not available on the towers but it because it’s equipment that is there is not in use any longer.” said Peduto.

Peduto says the recent sale won’t impact any Medicom sales and services of wouldn’t be affected.

“It will not impact any cable services at all. In that regard, Mediacom is carrying the signals through fiber, which is more reliable and CTI will be marketing the tower to other wireless carriers as well as anybody who would need the towers for two way communications. Other customers besides the major four wireless carries, includes U.S. Cellular, we also have federal, state and local governments on there. We have companies like Federal Express that may need to have communications with their trucks. Not just the tower space for the wireless carriers, there are multiple users and broadcasters as well.” Peduto said.

The Jacksonville tower is 448 feet tall and a highway right-of-way on about 8 acres. CTI will continue to acquire many towers in the Midwest and Mediacom will continue to have access to the sites.