Crown Castle king of cells

NEWS Crown Castle, the company which develops many of the sites used for wireless network base stations, has reported a bumper first quarter, benefiting from continued network developments in Australia, the UK and the US. Revenues were up just 3.6 per cent at $220.6m but EBITDA profits were up 29 per cent at $90.8m compared with the corresponding period last year. However, there was still a net loss of $123.5m. The last three months saw the company develop 173 sites, 89 under an agreement with BT in the UK. Crown Castle said demand for 3G network deployments in the UK drove its business in Q1.