5 Things You Need To Know
- As of the end 2016 American Tower Corporation owns, manages, or leases approximately 144,000 cell tower sites worldwide. American Tower’s holdings in the United States is approximately 55,000 with its other largest holding being in India. American Tower’s growth will mostly be concentrated outside the United States in 2017.
- American Tower built about 2,500 new cell sites in 2016 directly or through third-party vendors. The predominate reason for this build-out activity was due to the fact that wireless carrier needs grew to a 42% increase in mobile data traffic in 2015 alone. This growth was typically located in high-density urban areas and will continue in 2017.
- American Tower increased 2016 revenues made directly from cell towers to approximately 4.7 billion dollars, a 16.8 % increase from the year prior. Property owners with American Tower sites were paid less than approximately 15% of these revenues. See other incredible cell tower facts from 2016 in our custom infographic.
- American Tower secured the long-term rights to over 3,000 cell tower sites from property owners in 2016. About 65% of these transactions were via cell tower lease extensions, and the remaining 35% being by way of lease buyouts. American Tower will continue to secure cell sites with a focus on acquiring Verizon cell tower sites.
- American Tower now controls about 60% of their total cell sites via agreements that average 22 years in lease term remaining on those agreements. In contrast, the average cell tower lease provides no long-term commitment from American Tower, with most having 30-day termination rights.
Contact us today if you have an American Tower cell tower lease. You don’t have to settle.
