Glossary of Terms

• For a more detailed glossary:
SOMA Glossary (pdf format)
Provided by PCIA SOMA

Tower Industry Terms

Anchor Tenant - the commencement of the first tenant added to a tower built in the same quarter the built tower is completed.

BBE (Broadband Equivalent) or BBE tenants - a unit of measurement which combines the income from tenants that are paying different monthly rates and normalizes the number of tenants to an equivalent number of tenants paying a standard rate, which is that associated with a typical WSP (i.e., a "broadband" tenant). This calculation takes the sum of the monthly lease rates and divides them by the rate of a "US Broadband" tenant to arrive at the BBE tenants.

Ex: Tenant 1: $500
Tenant 2: $2000
Tenant 3: $1200
US Broadband Rate: $1500
(500+2000+1200)/1500=2.46 BBE Tenants

BTS (Build to Suit) - A tower that is planned and built based on criteria specified by a particular WSP, where the WSP has contractually committed to co-locate on the tower subject to the specifications being met.

Co-location - Placement of multiple antennas at a common physical site to reduce environmental impact and real estate costs, speed zoning approvals, network deployment

EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) - EBITDA is defined as operating income (loss) plus depreciation and amortization, non-cash general and administrative compensation charges, asset write-down charges and restructuring charges. EBITDA is presented as additional information because management believes it to be a useful indicator of our ability to meet debt service and capital expenditure requirements. It is not, however, intended as an alternative measure of operating results or cash flow from operations (as determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles). Furthermore, our measure of EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Tenant - term used for a WSP or other customer who pays rent in order to receive coverage from a specific tower.

Wireless Industry Terms

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) - 2G and 2.5G- A digital cellular phone service that offers up to 20 times more call-handling capacity than conventional cellular systems by assigning a special electronic code to each signal, allowing more calls to occupy the same space and be spread over an entire frequency band. Developed by Qualcomm, Incl, which promotes CDMA as an alternative to Time Division Multiple Access technology.

CDMA 2000/1XRTT - The first stage in the 2.5G wireless strategy to move CDMA carriers toward 3G services. The RTT standard allows for mobility data rates of 144 Kbps.

Enhanced Data for GSM evolution ("EDGE") - 3G-brings enhanced modulation schemes and can consequently offer up to 384 Kbps. EDGE is a technology directly derived from GPRS and does not require new spectrum; the "final" stage in the GSM evolution.

Global Packet Radio System ("GPRS") - 2.5G- is a packet-based enhancement to the GSM mobile communications system which enables high-speed mobile datacom usage. It operates in the same 200 Mhz of channel bandwidth as GSM, but can achieve significantly higher data speeds (115 Kbps vs. 9.6 Kbps).

POP - short for population. Commonly used as a measure of the potential market for a cellular or PCS provider. The population in a market is referred to as a number of POPs. POP can also refer to "Point of Presence" when referring to the location that access is available to interconnection facilities from IXCs, RBOCs, CLECs, etc.

Time Division Multiple Access ("TDMA") - One of several technologies used to separate multiple conversation transmissions over a finite frequency allocation of through-the-air bandwidth. Allocates a discrete amount of frequency bandwidth to each user to permit many simultaneous conversations. However, each caller is assigned a specific timeslot for transmission.

2G (or GSM) - Second Generation wireless communication system. Analogue was considered the first generation network, and digital the second generation (2G).

2.5G - Describes the state of wireless technology and capability usually associated with GPRS; that is, between the second and third generations of wireless technology. 2.5G offers data speeds at 28 Kbps and higher.

3G (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, "W-CDMA" or UMTS) - a packet-based system expected to provide much faster transmission speeds (up to 2 mbps) than existing 2G applications.