Untapped Service Provider Real Estate Assets

I saw the following post in Total Telecom..(See below)..  While it's an interesting real estate play,  it misses the real untapped RE asset play....Central Offices and Regional Switching Centers.

In the U.S., central offices are decades old and they are located in prime center cities across the country.  Built in the days of human operators, today they are made up of huge empty spaces.  I've seen a medium city's CO that was also a regional switching center and of the seven (7) floors of 20 foot ceilings all but two were completely empty.

So each local exchange carrier has fully depreciated assets in prime city center locations that are basically empty.  Here, we are talking $billions of hidden asset value.  One major issue is the huge amount of physical copper pairs and the Main Distribution Frame (MDF).  I've also seen a large city CO with 110,000 copper pairs.  Impressive!

These MDF and copper pairs are not going anywhere fast.  Imaging if you could.  Migrate to FTTX (Curb, building, home, access box), put the optical CO gear in the basement and backhaul to a regional data center.  Now, after some likely serious environmental clean up and building refurbishment, you have an ideal location for an office building and a GREAT REIT PLAY.

Even if the MDFs and copper pairs can't be phased out fast enough you can still collapse the existing equipment in to a small percentage of the building and refurb the remainder.  Better check the battery banks while you're at it.

Be interested in your comments..

Greg Whelan
gwhelan@greywale.com
+978 992 2203


TOTAL Telecom Article...

Monetising real estate assets could lead telcos down REIT path By Mary Lennighan, Total Telecom Friday 24 May 2013 Telecoms operators worldwide seen following in the footsteps of U.S.-based Cincinnati Bell and monetising their data centres to fund investment elsewhere. http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=481414&mail=1021