First Avenue Networks has completed its merger with FiberTower Corp. and has now adopted that name and stock symbol, the company announced today.

The ‘old’ FiberTower operation is now a wholly owned subsidiary of FiberTower Corp., which continues trading on the NASDAQ as FTWR. The two companies announced plans to merge their wireless networks in May. FiberTower operates a wireless backhaul network while First Avenue provides wireless transport. They are combining the two networks into a national backhaul and transport operation, poised to capitalize on what is expected to be an explosion of demand for network capacity to connect wireless cellsites to network switches.

The management team of the new company includes Michael Gallagher, president and CEO, and Thomas Scott, senior vice president and CFO, both from First Avenue. Eric Botto, CTO and co-founder of FiberTower becomes senior vice president, technology. David Leeds, co-founder and vice president of sales & sales operations for FiberTower becomes senior vice president, sales; Harpinder Singh Madan, vice president of business development for Fiber Tower, becomes senior vice president, marketing; Ravi Potharlanka, president of market operations for Fiber Tower, becomes senior vice president, operations; and Ferdi Schell, Vice President National Operations and Chief Information Officer for Fiber Tower becomes senior vice president, systems.

The board of directors will include a blend of First Avenue, FiberTower and wireless industry officials, including John Beletec as executive chairman of the board; Gallagher; Bandel Carano, general partner, Oak Investment Partners; Randall A. Hack, board member, Crown Castle International Corporation; John Kelly, CEO, Crown Castle International Corporation; John Muleta, president and CEO, M2Z Networks; Darryl Schall, Tudor Investment Corporation; Steven Scheiwe, president, Ontrac Advisors, Inc.; and Neil Subin, managing director and president, Trendex Capital Management.

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FiberTower, First Avenue Networks merge