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Top 10 Tower Companies

Editor’s Note: Following is the listing of the top 10 tower companies in the United States, along with a list of “honorable mentions” of companies that more than likely fall in the top 20 tower companies. A continuing trend in the tower industry is that the largest players continue to grow by consolidating their smaller counterparts and through international expansion. This list originally ran in the PCIA Wireless Infrastructure 2010 Show Guide.
Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) remains the top tower company in the United States, followed close by American Tower Corp. (AMT) The next tier of tower companies – from AT&T Towers to TowerCo – all count thousands of towers. The list quickly drops again to companies that all own fewer than 500 towers.
Although other major carriers maintain site inventories that would include them in this list, they were not included on the list because they are not actively pursuing co-location opportunities so were not considered active “tower companies” per se.
Jim Fryer, president of Fryer Marketing & Media, compiled the top 10 list for RCR Wireless News and filtered out alternative structures, raw land, managed sites and rooftops, among other things. Monopoles were included as were stealth flagpoles; multiple occupancy was assumed. Fryer was the founder of Fryer’s Site Guide and TowerSource and has been an analyst and researcher of the tower market for over 20 years.

Rank
Company
No. of towers owned in U.S.
Regions of Operation
1 Crown Castle Int’l Corp.
22,321
Nationwide plus Australia
2 American Tower Corp.
20,594
Nationwide, plus Mexico, South America, India, UK
3
10,792
Nationwide
4
8,588
Nationwide
5
7,000
Nationwide
6
3,700
Nationwide
7
3,058
Nationwide
8
3,000
Nationwide
9
489
Southeast/Mid-Atlantic
10
350
West, Southwest, Southeast
Honorable Mention
310
East, Midwest, Southeast
Honorable Mention
305
East, West, Midwest
Honorable Mention
250
Midwest
Honorable Mention
102
Northeast, Southeast, Midwest

ABOUT AUTHOR

Tracy Ford
Tracy Ford
Former Associate Publisher and Executive Editor, RCR Wireless NewsCurrently HetNet Forum Director703-535-7459 [email protected] Ford has spent more than two decades covering the rapidly changing wireless industry, tracking its changes as it grew from a voice-centric marketplace to the dynamic data-intensive industry it is today. She started her technology journalism career at RCR Wireless News, and has held a number of titles there, including associate publisher and executive editor. She is a winner of the American Society of Business Publication Editors Silver Award, for both trade show and government coverage. A graduate of the Minnesota State University-Moorhead, Ford holds a B.S. degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis on public relations.