The tower industry in the United States is growing with the advent of 5G as essentially all companies in the segment are now ramping up their infrastructure investments in preparation for the next generation of connectivity. During a number of earnings calls held earlier this week, tower executives indicated they’re still enjoying leasing business growth as wireless carriers in the country are becoming increasingly more aggressive in their efforts to densify their networks in preparation for 5G. Both new equipment installations and upgrades are now on the rise, with the small cell sector enjoying particularly significant growth, the industry insiders said, as reported by FierceWireless.
The majority of analysts hence ended up being highly optimistic about the tower segment’s prospects following second-quarter earnings reports, with 5G benefitting both publicly traded and smaller, privately held firms. The trend is likely to continue throughout the third quarter of the year as all wireless carriers are expected to either maintain the current level of their leasing and upgrading activities or increase it even further, tower companies believe. Another takeaway from the latest round of earnings calls in the industry is that AT&T’s capital expenditure increase announced earlier this year has yet to reflect on the tower industry as the second-largest mobile service provider in the country still hasn’t started committing more resources to leases and upgrades.
T-Mobile and Sprint’s merger attempt also hasn’t impacted their network investments, with more than 90-percent of tower firms doing business with the former observing increased investments from the company during the second quarter of the year. Likewise, over 70-percent of Sprint’s partners reported a rise in activity from the Overland Park, Kansas-based telecom giant for the same period. Tower companies are expecting their industry to continue growing as network operators start large-scale 5G deployment efforts next year with the goal of delivering national coverage by 2020.