Title: ... with five leading wireless carriers ... Verizon Wireles
1FiberTower Corporation
- Bear Stearns 2006 SMid-Cap Investor Conference
- November 14, 2006
- Mike Gallagher, President and CEO
- Tom Scott, Senior Vice President and CFO
2Forward-Looking Statements
- This Presentation contains or may contain
forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933. These forward-looking statements, as
defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, are identified by words such as may,
will, would, could, likely, estimate,
intend, plan, believe, expect, or
anticipate and other similar words and are
dependent on certain events, risks and
uncertainties that may be outside of the
Companys control. These forward-looking
statements may include statements of managements
plans, objectives and expectations for the
Companys future operations and statements of
future economic performance, the Companys
capital budget and future capital requirements,
and the Companys meeting its future capital
needs. We do not guarantee that the transactions
and events described in this Presentation will
happen as described or that any positive trends
noted in this Presentation will continue. Actual
results and developments could differ materially
from those expressed in or implied by such
statements due to a number of factors, including,
without limitation, those identified in our
confidential offering memorandum relating to the
offering or described in the context of such
forward-looking statements. We will not update
forward-looking statements even though our
situation may change in the future.
3Overview
- FiberTower designs multi-carrier backhaul
networks that it owns and operates, and uses
these networks to provide backhaul services to
wireless carriers - Currently own and operate networks in 12 markets
- Signed MSAs and customer commitments with five
leading wireless carriers - Nationwide spectrum footprint
- Access to high-quality tower sites through
strategic relationships with Crown Castle and
American Tower - Network technology allows flexible network
deployment in metro, suburban and rural markets - Stable, recurring revenue model with significant
incremental margin expansion as T1 equivalent
capacity and/or customers are added to our
networks
4FiberTower First Avenue Networks Merger
- First Avenue Networks and FiberTower merged on
August 29, 2006, to create FiberTower the
largest alternative provider of backhaul services
to wireless carriers - All stock transaction
- Transaction combined First Avenues nationwide
spectrum assets with FiberTowers operational
expertise, customer contracts and relationships
with leading tower companies - Transaction increases speed-to-market, reduces
business risk and enhances FiberTowers ability
to serve wireless carriers - Enables FiberTower to increase penetration in
existing markets and to expand into new markets
5 6Backhaul The Achilles Heel of Wireless Networks
Fiber Ring
Verizon Wireless BTS
Fiber
BSC - MSC
Central Office
Copper
Cingular Wireless BTS
Backhaul
Carrier Challenges
- Backhaul Expense 15-25 of total carrier opex
and growing - Backhaul Expense Growth outstripping revenue
growth significantly - Reliability 50-80 cell site outages
attributable to wired local loop - Capacity Constraints Growth in voice and data
traffic increasing required backhaul capacity - Capacity Constraints 18 T1s per tower is the
approximate capacity limit of existing copper
(Source Stratsoft Research 2006) - Technology Migration - Need to migrate from TDM
(T1s) to Ethernet - Scalability/Provisioning Time - Lengthy T-1
provisioning times (4-12 weeks)
7Network Upgrades Near Term Impact on Backhaul
T1s per Cell Site
W-CDMA Carriers
10-16 T1s
UTRAN _at_ 100 Mbps DL
HSDPA _at_ 14 Mbps DL
6-10 T1s
WCDMA _at_ 384 Kbps DL
4-6 T1s
GPRS _at_ 160 Kbps DL
2 T1s
CDMA Carriers
Rev B _at_ 73.5 Mbps DL
10-16 T1s
Rev A _at_ 3.1 Mbps DL, 1.8 Mbps UL
6-10 T1s
1xEV-DO Rev 0 _at_ 2.4 Mbps DL, 153 Kbps UL
4-6 T1s
CDMA 1x _at_ 153 Kbps DL
2 T1s
2008
2004
2010
2006
8Projected Backhaul Growth
Service Revenues (billions)
5-Year CAGR 27.4
Source Wall Street Research, Industry Research
(Stratsoft) and Company estimates, Sep 2006.
9Wireless Carriers Increasing Capital Expenditures
Over 160,000 new cell sites are projected to be
built due to new spectrum initiatives - Source
Bear Stearns U.S. Spectrum Trends and Impact on
Tower Business 9/06
Source Selected Wireless Carrier press
releases.(1) Includes Leaps 82.5 owned
subsidiary Denali.
10FiberTower Backhaul Characteristics
11FiberTower Backhaul Network
FiberTower Site (tower or rooftop)
Point-to-Multipoint (PMP)
T-Mobile
Customer Location (tenant site)
Verizon
Sprint
T-Mobile Verizon
PTP / PMP radios and SONET fiber
Point-to-Point (PTP)
FTWR Fiber Exchange Point (FEP)
Customer MSC
Sprint Verizon
T-Mobile
Cingular MetroPCS
End-to-End (BTS-to-MSC) Solution
12Point-to-Point Existing Market
Green dots represent co-location sites Blue dots
represent single location sites Red dot
represents Fiber Exchange Point
Point-to-Point
13Point-to-Point Market Point-to-Multipoint Design
PMP overlay of existing PTP network enables
FiberTower to capture/serve more carrier sites
Green dots represent co-location sites Blue dots
represent single location sites Red dot
represents Fiber Exchange Point
PMP Network Overlay
14FiberTower Markets and Nationwide Spectrum
Current
FiberTower Markets
Developing
39 GHz
FiberTower Spectrum
24 GHz
Detroit
Boston
Pittsburgh
NY/NJ
Chicago
Cleveland
Washington DC
Denver
Carolinas
Dallas/ Fort Worth
Atlanta
Houston
San Antonio/ Austin/Waco
Tampa
15- Financials and Operating Success
16Financials
Does not reflect net proceeds of 390 million
from recent sale of convertible notes
17Year-over-Year Operational Success
Customer Locations Billing
Also referred to as cell sites, which are
located at cell towers and rooftop sites
Cumulative Customer Locations Billing
T1 Equivalents Billing
Cumulative T1s Billing
18Year-over-Year Operational Success
FiberTower Sites Deployed
Could be a tower or rooftop site
Cumulative Sites Deployed
FiberTower Sites Billing
Could be a tower or rooftop site
Cumulative Sites Billing
19Site Level Economics
- Capex for single tenant site is approximately
40,000 - Current T1 capacity per site is approximately
21-28 T1s
20Recent Capital Raise
- 402.5 million private placement closed on
November 9 net proceeds of 390 million - 69 million to be used for first two years of
interest expense, leaving us with approximately
321 million to fund network expansion in the 12
existing markets and to selectively open up new
markets, as well as for general corporate
purposes - De-risks the company and gives us the capital we
need to deploy our networks and execute on our
business model - Accruing 9 interest annually, payable
semi-annually - To mature on November 15, 2012
- Initial conversion price of 8.29, a 15 premium
over Oct. 26 closing price - Conversion price may be reduced if certain
conditions are not met - Secured by nearly all of FiberTowers assets
21Summary
- The backhaul market opportunity is estimated to
grow from 3.8 billion in 2006 to 10.1 billion
in 2010 - Market forces are leading to a perfect storm for
microwave backhaul - Recurring revenue from quality customers, low
churn and high incremental contribution margin
with each additional T1 equivalent and/or carrier
added - Through nationwide spectrum and strategic tower
company relationships, FiberTower can rapidly
deploy backhaul networks in metro, suburban and
rural markets - FiberTower is in a strong financial position to
execute its plan - FiberTower can provide a more scalable, reliable
and cost-effective backhaul solution
22