SBA Communications said today that a solid fourth quarter capped off a strong 2014, and the tower giant expects continued strong carrier spending in the year ahead. The company said that the top four U.S. carriers delivered 75% of its incremental site leasing revenue, and named T-Mobile US, Sprint and Verizon as active spenders. AT&T continues to spend but at a slower pace than in 2014.
“AT&T has slowed down,” said SBAC CEO Jeffrey Stoops during the company’s earnings call. “That is the primary reason we saw a shift from amendments to leasing. … They’re doing things, but they’re off the pace that they were in the first half of last year.” Stoops noted that as the high bidder in the recent AWS spectrum auction, AT&T clearly signaled its intention to build out more spectrum over time.
SBAC’s total revenue in Q4 was $404.7 million (up 20.7% year-on-year) and $361.4 million of that came from site leasing. Site development revenue was $43.3 million compared to $42.9 million in the year-earlier period.
International site leasing revenue was $51.8 million in Q4, an increase of 123% year-on-year. “Twenty-five to 30% of revenue would be the limits on what we would be targeting for non-U.S. revenue,” said Stoops.
SBAC built 175 sites in the fourth quarter of 2014. The company ended the year with 24,292 sites, more than 15,000 of which are in the United States.
Small cells and ExteNet Systems
SBAC has invested in ExteNet Systems, which deploys distributed antenna systems and small cell solutions for customers. Asked if SBAC might acquire a controlling interest in ExteNet, Stoops said it is definitely an option.
“We like ExteNet a lot, we think they do well,” he said. “If we had an opportunity to increase our position there we would certainly consider it.”
Stoops said that SBAC’s view of small cells is improving and that he realizes that will be a permanent part of network architectures.
“We are seeing more and more evidence over time,” said Stoops. “We do believe, if well executed and well priced, that there are projects and networks in that business that can perform.”
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