Looking the generate communications income from leasing space on your outdoor signs to communications and data companies? Talk to Vertical Bridge. Vertical Bridge Holdings is the largest US private owner and manager of wireless telecommunications infrastructure. In September the company announced a partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor giving Vertical Bridge exclusive rights to antenna and small cell site deployment across clear Channel’s footprint. Insider interviewed Vertical Bridge CEO Alex Gellman this week. Gellman has a BS from Tufts University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. He is CEO and co-founder of Vertical Bridge. Prior to forming Vertical Bridge he was Chief Operating Officer of Global Tower Partners.

1. Alex tell us a little bit about Vertical Bridge.

Vertical Bridge is the largest private owner and manager of wireless communication infrastructure in the United States. The company owns, operates and manages over 40,000 tower, rooftop, billboard, utility attachment and other site locations in support of all wireless network deployments. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Vertical Bridge was founded in 2014 by key executives from Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC and former senior officers of Global Tower Partners. The senior management team at Vertical Bridge has over 150 years of collective experience in tower and site infrastructure and related sectors. For more information, please visit www.verticalbridge.com.
2. What kinds of firms may be interested in renting communications space on a billboard?

Billboards have potential as site locations for a wide variety of wireless communications providers. Billboard company assets most frequently are elevated structures with substantial capacity in high traffic areas. Most have power already and are proximate to fiber. Matching individual billboard locations to a wireless needs is first about height. The use will drive the desired height. The two hottest areas for billboard antenna siting are small cells and Internet of Things (IoT) locations. Small cells are increasingly being deployed by the major wireless carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) as a means of meeting the incredible growth in demand for wireless data on smartphones. Billboards can be well-positioned to be part of the solution for those carriers. In addition, there are several emerging companies that are focused on deploying IoT (machine to machine) networks. Billboards are a good fit for this use as well. Some billboards will also work for other applications (e.g., macro cells) on a case by case basis.

3. What sort of equipment is involved and where will it go on a billboard?

For the small cell and IoT applications, the equipment is generally one equipment unit (can be as small as 20” x 20” x 5”) plus 1-3 antennas, often a single 3-foot “whip” antenna. Add in a means for communicating to the other sites in the network (most often either a small radome similar to a smoke detector or a satellite antenna a little larger than a home satellite dish), and that’s the deployment for an individual billboard. In most cases, all of the equipment can fit on the billboard structure itself.

4. What role does Vertical Bridge play in the process?

Vertical Bridge fills the same role for billboard owners as we have filled for major real estate owners (e.g., REITs) over many years. We gather information about the properties, market them to the various potential telecommunications tenants, work with those tenants and our billboard company clients to identify specific locations and the installation details unique to each location, negotiate pricing, execute the documents, oversee the installations, and bill and collect the rent, remitting the majority of the rent to the billboard owner. In almost all cases, Vertical Bridge will already have a master lease agreement with the larger tenants, so the leasing process is faster, which in turn makes the billboards more attractive to those tenants. In essence, Vertical Bridge serves as the “arms and legs” for the billboard owner to ensure that their properties receive maximum marketing exposure, generate the most possible leasing income from these tenants and that the structure and the billboard company’s interests are protected throughout. Vertical Bridge gives the billboard owner “one neck to choke” with respect to all matters relating to this ancillary use of the billboard assets.

5. Who should a billboard company contact at vertical bridge if they are interested in learning more?

Jim McCulloch (jmcculloch@verticalbridge.com) and Chris Felder (CFelder@VerticalBridge.com) run the billboard program for Vertical Bridge. Both are very experienced in the wireless siting industry and knowledgeable about billboard assets.