investors

               Moody's and Standard & Poor's Coverage Continues

HOUSTON, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) announced today that the Company decided last year not to renew its rating agreement with the rating agency Fitch IBCA due to its existing credit ratings coverage maintained by Moody's Investor Service and Standard & Poor's. As a result, Fitch announced yesterday afternoon that it had withdrawn its credit ratings on the Company. The Company believes that the credit ratings and research maintained by Moody's and S&P provide investors with sufficient information to analyze the credit risks associated with its fixed-income securities and senior bank debt. The Company continues to be committed to providing investors and the rating agencies with adequate and timely information to make informed evaluations of the Company's securities and senior bank debt.

Crown Castle International Corp. engineers, deploys, owns and operates technologically advanced shared wireless infrastructure, including extensive networks of towers and rooftops as well as analog and digital audio and television broadcast transmission systems. The Company offers near-universal broadcast coverage in the United Kingdom and significant wireless communications coverage to 68 of the top 100 United States markets, to more than 95 percent of the UK population and to more than 92 percent of the Australian population. The Company owns, operates and manages over 14,500 wireless communication towers internationally. For more information on Crown Castle International Corp. visit: www.crowncastle.com.

SOURCE Crown Castle International Corp.

CONTACT:          W. Benjamin Moreland, CFO, or Jay Brown, VP Finance both of
                  Crown Castle International, +1-713-570-3000; or Ken Dennard,
                  kdennard@easterly.com, or Lisa Elliott, lisae@easterly.com, both of Easterly
                  Investor Relations, +1-713-529-6600, for Crown Castle International

URL:              http://www.crowncastle.com 
http://www.prnewswire.com

Copyright (C) 2002 PR Newswire.  All rights reserved.