investors

HOUSTON, May 18, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) --

Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) announced that one of its subsidiaries has entered into a multi-year agreement whereby it will market and lease space on 496 wireless infrastructure sites owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition, the agreement provides Crown Castle with the opportunity to market new wireless infrastructure built by the Commonwealth and to construct new towers on state-owned property, each at the discretion of the Commonwealth.

The sites, used by the Commonwealth to provide state-wide communication services, will now be marketed and leased by Crown Castle to wireless carriers and others seeking to use shared wireless infrastructure across Pennsylvania. Information regarding the sites will be stored in CCIsites, Crown Castle's award-winning site database management tool. Carriers using CCIsites will now have visibility to hundreds of additional sites on which to lease space for their equipment.

"Many of the sites are in locations with limited existing shared wireless infrastructure options. With the addition of these sites to our marketable portfolio of assets, carriers now have more facilities available for their equipment so they can extend voice and data services to communities which may previously have been underserved," said Rob Ward, Crown Castle's Midwest Area President.

In 2010, the Commonwealth issued a "request for proposal" seeking a company that had the resources and experience to help them market and lease the excess capacity on Commonwealth sites. As one of the country's largest owners and operators of shared wireless infrastructure, Crown Castle, with operational headquarters in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was awarded the contract in January 2011. With the agreement, the Commonwealth and its citizens are expected to benefit from increased revenues, enhanced wireless services and improved public safety.

"Our public safety radio network consists of hundreds of towers located in every county, including areas with small populations," said Secretary of Administration Kelly Powell Logan. "Funds generated by the additional marketing and leasing of our state's public safety radio network towers by Crown Castle will help defray taxpayer costs to maintain the network. The network currently provides public safety and emergency response dispatch, as well as wireless voice and data communications, to State Police, PennDOT, PEMA and more than 20 other state and local government agencies, regional task forces and business partners."

"We are pleased to have been awarded this contract by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Crown Castle's comprehensive knowledge of wireless infrastructure and the wireless industry, coupled with a solid understanding of local market characteristics, means we can get customers on-air more quickly and efficiently," said Rob Ward. "We have been working with the Commonwealth and several of its communities for many years to upgrade and expand public emergency service infrastructure, and we look forward to leveraging the experience and expertise of our local teams as we work with the Commonwealth and our customers to secure leases so that wireless coverage can continue to be enhanced throughout Pennsylvania."

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates, and leases towers and other communication structures for wireless communications. Crown Castle offers significant wireless communications coverage to 92 of the top 100 US markets and to substantially all of the Australian population. Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 22,000 and approximately 1,600 wireless communication sites in the US and Australia, respectively. For more information on Crown Castle, please visit www.crowncastle.com.

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SOURCE: Crown Castle International Corp.

CONTACT: Jay Brown, CFO
Fiona McKone, VP - Finance
Crown Castle International Corp.
713-570-3050