investors

NOVEMBER 5, 1999 – HOUSTON, TEXAS – Crown Castle International Corp. (NASDAQ: TWRS) today announced that Nextel Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTL) has signed a 25-year Master Lease Agreement (MLA) for co-location on 1,264 wireless sites on Crown Castle’s domestic communications towers commencing immediately and deploying over the next three years. Fully implemented, this agreement represents annualized leasing revenue for Crown Castle between approximately $23 million and $27 million. Additionally, Crown Castle will provide installation services for all sites.

"The Nextel agreement, along with the Metricom MLA previously announced, further demonstrates the viability of our cluster strategy for rapid deployment of wireless communications networks on our tower clusters, as well as our ability to drive internal growth and value," stated Ted B. Miller, Jr., Crown Castle Chairman and CEO. "Over the past year, major wireless carriers in the US and UK such as Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Powertel and One-2-One have outsourced their tower networks to Crown Castle. The result is that wireless providers now have the opportunity to deploy their networks on towers which were not heretofore readily available to them and which are now in the hands of independent wireless infrastructure providers such as Crown Castle. Co-location availability on these outsourced tower networks enables rapid deployment and more efficient capital allocation for wireless carriers. The result is more robust coverage and network capacity to support increased subscriber demand through co-location. Given the operating leverage of this business, adding tenants to our existing tower base drives cashflow faster than any other source of growth in this industry."

Crown Castle International Corp. is a leading provider of communication sites and wireless network services and provides an array of related infrastructure and network support services to the wireless communications and radio and television broadcasting industries in the United States and United Kingdom. Pro forma for all closed and previously announced transactions, Crown Castle International owns, operates and manages over 7,000 wireless communication towers internationally. For more information on Crown Castle International, visit: www.crowncastle.com.

Nextel Communications, Inc., based in Reston, VA, is the leading provider of fully integrated wireless communications and has built the largest guaranteed all-digital wireless network in the United States covering thousands of communities across the United States. Nextel and Nextel Partners, Inc., currently serve 92 of the top 100 U.S. markets. The Nextel National Network offers a fully integrated wireless communications tool with digital cellular, text/numeric paging and Nextel Direct Connect(sm) - a digital two-way radio feature. In addition, through Nextel International, Inc., Nextel has wireless operations and investments in Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Peru, Japan and Shanghai, China. For more information, visit http://www.nextel.com.

This press release contains various forward-looking statements and information that are based on management's belief as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Such statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Should one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected.

Contacts:

Charles C. Green, III, CFO
Crown Castle International
713-570-3000

Ken Dennard / kdennard@easterly.com
Lisa Elliott / lisae@easterly.com
Easterly Investor Relations
713-529-6600