Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Group Corp. plans to form a joint venture with Australia’s Lendlease Group to build or manage about 8,000 cellular sites across the U.S., challenging tower operators that dominate the industry. Most of the infrastructure will initially come from Sprint Corp., which plans to shift its leases for rooftop transmitters and other sites to the joint venture, according to the companies. SoftBank, which owns about 80% of Sprint’s outstanding shares, has struggled to turn the carrier into a profitable...

Source: Wall Street Journal October 17, 2017 16:05 UTC