News

AAT Continues on Expansion Fast-Track

Closes Two New Acquisitions, Reviews Other Opportunities Rapid
Growth Prompts Overhaul of Branding, Marketing Program

St. Louis, March 29, 2004

Already among the nation's largest providers of sites for wireless communications equipment, AAT Communications Corp. recently closed its latest two acquisitions and is actively pursuing others, which could help the company fulfill (and potentially surpass) a growth goal set by its management team in May 2002.

The company has also re-vamped branding and marketing strategies to underscore its rapidly expanding portfolio of site resources, its growing reputation as a source for build-to-suit projects, and its approach to customer service and collaboration, which company executives believe is unique in today's tower sector.

The recently closed acquisitions - for which final terms were not disclosed - include 78 towers from Lake Charles, La.-based US Unwired Inc. and 226 towers from Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Signal One, LLC. The Signal One deal - which closed on March 19 - covers all of Signal One's site assets, including about 170 managed sites. Selected members of the Signal One team will be joining AAT, including Pat Tant, who served as Signal One's senior vice president, sales and marketing.

The towers acquired from US Unwired are located in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The assets acquired from Signal One are located primarily in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.

Counting these acquisitions, plus build-to-suit projects in the pipeline for 2004, AAT's site portfolio includes approximately 1,800 owned towers and more than 6,000 managed rooftop and tower sites in 48 states. All told, AAT is on track to achieve its target of owning at least 2,000 towers, which represents a minimum "critical-mass" goal set by the current management team when they assumed control of AAT in May 2002. AAT executives also said they continue to look for other appropriate acquisitions and are in the early stages of discussions on at least two such opportunities, which could add approximately 400 more towers to the company's footprint.

"When we established our critical-mass goal two years ago, there were probably a number of parties who were skeptical," said Paul Estes, AAT's chief operating officer. "At the time, the tower sector was suffering from the same busted expectations plaguing the larger telecom industry, and AAT had only 200-plus owned towers to its name. In short, our 2,000 owned-tower goal called for a nearly ten-fold increase of towers in two years in a down market. You can understand why our optimism raised a few eyebrows. But we've always considered ourselves contrarians, and we've always believed markets are never as robust or as dire as the pundits might suggest."

With AAT's rapid rise to the ranks of major tower owners, the management team determined, late last year, that it was also time to update the company's branding and marketing.

"In a relatively short period of time, this was no longer the small, family-run enterprise that characterized the first 50 years of AAT's existence," Estes said. "We clearly needed to update our image in the market and take a more systematic approach to positioning our capabilities with prospective customers, from carriers to system integrators to government agencies."

The first steps in overhauling AAT's marketing efforts included the development of brand guidelines, plus updates to the company's logo, Web site (www.aatcommunications.com), and tagline. Those tasks were followed, earlier this year, with updates to the company's exhibition booth and sales materials, which debuted last week, in Atlanta at CTIA Wireless 2004, an industry-leading trade show organized by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).

The decision to focus a significant portion of AAT's marketing resources on CTIA's primary 2004 event was also a result of the company's marketing audit, which included a detailed review of the annual cycle of industry trade shows.

"In the end, it was a relatively simple decision," Estes said. "As a customer-oriented company, you want to go where your customers are - and our customers, year over year, attend CTIA's centerpiece show, in large numbers."

He added that his marketing team also recommended AAT sponsor a "track" of educational seminars at CTIA Wireless 2004, to underscore the company's efforts to be "more than merely a provider of sites."

"In sponsoring the 'Business Ecosystem' track of seminars, our goal was to reinforce what we've already been doing - namely, seeking and gaining a seat at the table with our customers, to develop solutions to common challenges," Estes explained. "Our executive team has a broad range of experience - from the tower sector, to the cable industry, to the larger telecommunications universe - and we believe this experience puts us in a unique position to offer informed perspectives on a wide range of subjects, well beyond the traditional purview of a tower company. At the end of the day, if we help customers solve problems - related to wireless sites or other business issues - we'll enhance our value proposition to those customers and they'll be more likely to continue doing business with us."

After CTIA's Atlanta show, Estes said AAT would evaluate additional ways to help inform customers of the company's growing site portfolio and expanded capabilities, tapping the experience of Signal One's Pat Tant and others.

Also on tap for 2004, AAT will begin to outline an approach to the growing sector of in-building wireless communications; contribute tower sites to a wireless high-speed data test, in partnership with one of the nation's leading cable operators, Cebridge Connections, which specializes in serving small communities; and explore where and how AAT might offer cost-effective backhaul transport options to carrier customers via Broadwing Communications, which owns and operates the nation's only coast-to-coast, all-optical fiber network.

About Charterhouse Group
Charterhouse Group, Inc. is a private equity firm with three decades of experience in building leading middle-market companies. Established in 1973, Charterhouse currently manages in excess of $1.4 billion in equity through several limited partnerships. Since its inception, Charterhouse has completed investments in over 80 platform companies with a focus in the business services, healthcare services, consumer products and industrial sectors. For more information, please visit www.charterhousegroup.com.

Contacts:

Pete Abel, 314.315.9346, pete.abel@cequel3.com