Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 route miles of fiber
Crown Castle expects to double the rate of small cell deployments next year compared to the 5,000 nodes the firm expect to put on air this year to meet the growing demand from its customers, because 5G networks require small cells at scale, the company’s CEO Jay Brown said in a conference call with investors.
“This year, we’ll do about 5,000 nodes on air. And next year, we expect to do 10,000 on air. So really excited about what the growth is going to mean and certainly don’t feel like we’re coming toward the end of the build-out of 5G,” Brown said.
The executive noted that the firm’s strategy and its portfolio of 40,000 towers, 115,000 small cells on air or under contract and 85,000 route miles of fiber concentrated in the top U.S. markets have positioned Crown Castle to achieve its long-term annual dividend per share growth target of 7% to 8%.
“We expect 5G to drive sustained growth in our tower business, as our customers upgrade existing cell sites and add new sites to our 40,000 towers. We also believe 5G will be different as it will require the deployment of small cells at scale to increase the capacity and density of wireless network, as more spectrum deployed across existing macro towers will not be sufficient to keep up with the growth in mobile data demand. As a result of the requirement to build out this denser network, we believe the duration and magnitude of 5G investment will likely exceed prior cycles, further extending our runway of growth,” Brown said.
Site rental revenues in Q2 reached $1.56 billion, up 10% compared to the same quarter the previous year. For 2022, Crown Castle is forecasting site rental revenues to reach over $6.24 billion.
Income from continuing operations for the second quarter 2022 was $421 million compared to $333 million for the second quarter 2021.
Earlier this year, T-Mobile US and Crown Castle International signed a new 12-year agreement to support the continued build-out of T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network with increased access to Crown Castle’s towers and small cell locations.
Under the terms of the agreement, which includes 35,000 small cells, T-Mobile US will further expand the reach of 5G network to serve consumers across the U.S.
