Crown Castle International And Switchdigital Deliver Crystal Clear Digital Radio to Greater London

Warwick, 23, March, 2001 - Crown Castle International has extended Switchdigital's London digital radio network, enabling it to deliver crystal clear coverage to over 9 million listeners in the Greater London area. The improved network will also dramatically increase reception inside buildings, on roads and in the suburbs.

As part of the project Crown Castle installed "cutting edge" digital radio transmission equipment at ten sites in the space of just 14 weeks. The improved network delivers a range of new, digital-only radio services including The Groove, The Lounge, Big - London, WLON - The Mix, Ministry of Sound Radio and Travel Now. Also carried in digital quality are existing London analogue stations Heart 106.2, Jazz FM and BBC London.

The project required a diverse cross section of expertise right across Crown Castle including specialists in: transmitters, antennas, radio links and multiplexing amongst others. In extending the network, part of Crown Castle's brief was to build its own telecommunications circuits between the sites, enabling the company to link the digital radio multiplexer to the remote transmission sites. In building the circuits themselves, the project required close co-operation between Crown Castle's Telecommunications and Broadcast divisions.

Bob Giles, chief operating officer of Crown Castle UK Ltd, said of the project, "We are particularly proud of this project because of the challenges we overcame during its roll-out. These challenges included new technologies combined with tight implementation timescales.

"We have increased Switchdigital's coverage, enabling them to deliver crystal clear coverage to over nine million people throughout Greater London. The transmission network we have put in place will be monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by our experienced senior engineers based at Warwick."

Simon Spanswick, multiplex director at Switchdigital, said "We are delighted with the rapid and successful roll-out of our transmission network in London. We have been working closely with Crown Castle's engineers from the day of the award of our Radio Authority multiplex licence, and they have all proved to be highly capable and motivated.

"Our initial service went on the air in just 11 weeks from licence award thanks to Crown Castle's ingenuity in installing a transmitter at its Crystal Palace site and securing circuits linking all the various studio centres around the capital. Today, I'm delighted that we are able to provide all Londoners with a robust signal as radio rushes into the digital age."

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Note to Editors

Crown Castle International
Switchdigital is a joint venture between The Wireless Group, Clear Channel International, Virgin Radio and the Carphone Warehouse. Switchdigital was awarded the second London-wide commercial radio multiplex by the Radio Authority in April 2000 and launched on 26th June 2000.

www.switchdigital.com

Crown Castle International Corp. engineers, deploys, owns and operates technologically advanced shared wireless infrastructure, including extensive networks of towers and rooftops as well as analogue 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 and more than 92 % of the Australian population. UK broadcast customers include BBC, Virgin Radio, talkSport and ONdigital.

Pro forma for all closed and previously announced transactions, Crown Castle International owns, operates and manages over 11,000 wireless communication towers internationally.

www.crowncastle.com and www.3g-thefuture.com.

Digital radio is a fundamental advance in radio technology. It offers listeners interference-free reception, near-CD quality sound, easy to use radios plus a wider choice of programmes, text and ultimately, data services. The BBC started its Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) services in September 1995, and Digital One, the national commercial digital radio broadcaster, launched on 15 November, 1999. Local and regional services have been launched by commercial radio operators in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

Press Contacts

Stephen Arnold Tel: +44 (0) 1926 416 870
Communications Manager
stephen.arnold@ngridwireless.com

Switchdigital
Audrey Nash Tel: +44 (0) 20 7959 7869
audrey.nash@switchdigital.com

International media
Nicholas Tapper Tel: + 44 (0) 1799 506 187
Barrington Lloyd International
nicholas.tapper@bli.co.uk