American Tower Appoints James Taiclet, President and Chief Operating Officer.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2001

American Tower Corporation (ATC) (NYSE: AMT) today announced that James Taiclet has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of American Tower Corporation. Steve Dodge, founder of American Tower, remains the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Taiclet joins American Tower from Honeywell International, where as President of Honeywell Aerospace Services, he led a global organization of 10,000 employees providing aircraft equipment repair, part distribution, logistics, and space operations services. Last year, Aviation Week and Space Technology recognized Honeywell Aerospace Services as the leading service provider to the aerospace industry. Jim also led a Honeywell team that formed the Cordiem aerospace e-commerce joint venture with two other aircraft equipment manufacturers and eleven airlines.

Prior to Honeywell, Jim was Vice President, Engine Services at Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corporation. Jim served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, specializing in telecommunications and aerospace. He began his career as an Air Force officer and pilot and served in the Gulf War.

Steve Dodge, Chairman and CEO of American Tower, said, "We have been searching for a President for some time to lead our rapidly growing operations and to focus on driving efficiency and scalability. We feel fortunate to have found Jim. He's an individual with exceptional integrity, young but experienced, proven and still developing. During his career, he has engendered strong loyalty and respect from people he has led and has demonstrated a propensity for challenging convention, while developing new approaches, better solutions. We welcome Jim enthusiastically to our company and to our industry.

"The addition of Jim Taiclet is an important step in the process of adding needed depth and experience to our existing executive team and to better position our company for ongoing growth. Jim's presence will enable Doug Wiest, now EVP, Operations, to focus more intensely on network deployment, customer service and improving the consistency of execution throughout the Company.

"American Tower is dedicated to continually enhancing the effectiveness of its organization to better meet the needs of its customers and employees as it plays out the strength of the wireless shared infrastructure business model."

Jim Taiclet said, "I am extremely energized about joining American Tower at a time when growth in fundamental wireless demand continues to be strong, the Company has achieved a leadership position in the industry, and the strength of the co-location business model is bearing fruit. Initially, I expect to spend time getting to know our employees and customers and learning what we can do as an integrated company to make American Tower a better place to work and to improve service to our customers. I look forward to working with Steve Dodge and other key managers in the company in the years ahead."

American Tower is the leading independent owner, operator and developer of broadcast and wireless communications sites in North America. Giving effect to pending transactions, American Tower operates approximately 14,400 sites in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil, including approximately 300 broadcast tower sites. Of the 14,400 sites, approximately 13,500 are owned or leased towers and approximately 900 are managed and lease/sublease sites. Based in Boston, American Tower has regional hub offices in Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Mexico City. For more information about American Tower Corporation and its subsidiary Verestar, Inc., please visit our web sites www.americantower.com and www.verestar.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning our goals, beliefs, expectations, strategies, objectives, plans, future operating results and underlying assumptions, and other statements that are not of historical facts. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: (i) a decrease in demand for tower space would materially and adversely affect our operating results and we cannot control that demand; (ii) our substantial leverage and debt service obligations may adversely affect our operating results and our ability to make payments on our indebtedness; (iii) restrictive covenants in our credit facilities and our senior notes could adversely affect our business by limiting flexibility; (iv) build-to-suit construction projects and major acquisitions from wireless service providers increase our dependence on a limited number of customers, the loss of which could materially decrease revenue, and may also involve less favorable terms; (vii) if we cannot successfully integrate acquired sites or businesses or mange our operations as we grow, our business will be adversely affected and our growth may decline; (viii) increasing competition in the satellite and fiber network access services market may slow Verestar's growth and adversely affect its business; (ix) expanding operations into foreign countries could lead to expropriations, government regulations, funds inaccessibility, foreign exchange exposure and management problems; and (x) a significant general slow down in the economy in 2001 could reduce consumer demand for wireless services, thereby causing providers to delay implementation of new systems and technologies. We also believe the slow down in 2001 has harmed, and may continue to harm, the financial condition of some wireless service providers. For other important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements, we refer you to the caption entitled "Factors That May Affect Future Results" in our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2001, which we incorporate herein by reference. We undertake no obligation to update the information contained in this press release to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances.