As the telecommunications landscape rapidly evolves, the three leading U.S. telecom real estate investment trusts (REITs)—American Tower Corporation (AMT), Crown Castle Inc. (CCI), and SBA Communications Corporation (SBAC)—have reported their Q1 2025 earnings, offering insight into how each is navigating market headwinds. One central theme echoed across all three earnings calls: Tower infrastructure remains the backbone of telecom real estate strategy, especially in a capital-constrained environment where demand for reliable, high-capacity networks continues to grow.
Telecom REITs don’t just lease vertical real estate—they provide the infrastructure of modern connectivity. Their performance reflects the state of 5G deployment, the pace of digital infrastructure investment, and the capital strategies shaping where, when, and how networks get built. For our clients in telecom, energy, and insurance, understanding these shifts is critical to anticipating risk, identifying opportunity, and allocating capital intelligently.
The big story this quarter? Tower portfolios are holding strong, even as companies recalibrate around them. And that has implications far beyond earnings calls.
How Telecom REITs Make Money
Telecom REITs operate a capital-efficient, recurring revenue model: they acquire or control vertical real estate—typically tower sites—and lease antenna space to wireless carriers. These leases often span 5 to 15 years, include annual rent escalators, and support co-location, meaning multiple carriers can lease space on the same tower.
Because tower companies generally own or secure long-term control of the land beneath their assets, they can generate durable, inflation-hedged income with relatively low ongoing maintenance costs. The structure is designed to withstand economic fluctuations, as demand for mobile data and network coverage tends to persist regardless of the broader cycle.
That’s why, even in today’s capital-constrained environment, the top telecom REITs are sticking with what works—and, in at least one case, walking away from what doesn’t.
The Core Is the Constant
The message from the big three tower REITs this quarter is clear: towers are the business. In an environment where capital discipline matters more than ever, all three firms are either reinforcing or returning to their tower-first strategies—and stepping away from distractions. Crown Castle is actively unwinding its bet on fiber.
The company reported a net loss of $464 million in Q1 2025, primarily due to an $830 million impairment charge associated with its planned divestiture of the Fiber business. “We’re on a path to becoming a pure-play U.S. tower company,” said interim CEO Dan Schlanger. “I believe the decision to sell our fiber segment positions each of our tower, small cell, and fiber solutions businesses to be highly successful going forward while unlocking substantial value in our tower business.”
In contrast, American Tower and SBA Communications never made the leap into fiber. Both have remained focused on their core tower-leasing models—high-margin, capital-efficient businesses that continue to benefit from rising carrier demand and long-term lease structures.
American Tower increased its full-year 2025 property revenue guidance to a range of $9.97 billion to $10.12 billion, a move CEO Steven Vondran attributed to continued demand for its infrastructure assets. “Broad-based mid-band deployments and the early indications of capacity-driven new site demand supported our highest quarter of services revenue since 2021,” he said.
At SBA, net income rose 22% year-over-year on stable leasing activity and improved operating efficiency. CEO Brendan Cavanagh called out “a positive start to 2025,” noting that U.S. carrier activity continued to support both new leasing volumes and site services demand.
Together, the big three’s earnings and positioning reinforce a clear message: in a capital-constrained environment, towers remain the infrastructure asset of choice.
Together, these numbers reflect not only operational resilience, but the enduring value of tower real estate in an evolving telecom landscape. But there’s an important layer worth surfacing: all three REITs rely heavily on the same three tenants—Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. In 2024, SBA Communications derived 66% of its U.S. revenue from the three carriers. Crown Castle’s rental revenue from these three major carriers has consistently been around 75% in recent years. American Tower reported that approximately 86% of its U.S. and Canada property segment revenue in 2024 came from these same carriers.
“Looking ahead, the big three telecom REITs are likely to continue exploring adjacent infrastructure opportunities, such as edge data centers, indoor fixed wireless, and small cell networks,” said Stephen Griffin, telecommunications expert at LightBox. “These moves allow them to diversify within their core competencies while staying closely aligned with long-term carrier demand.”
How Telco REITs Are Repositioning in Search of Value
In Q1, the most notable capital allocation move among the tower REITs came from SBA Communications. The company authorized a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program and, subsequent to the quarter’s end, repurchased approximately 583,000 shares at an average price of $210.87 per share.
That move aligns with a broader shift across the REIT sector. Share repurchases among U.S. REITs nearly doubled quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2025, approaching $1 billion in total, according to BisNow. It’s a signal that REIT executives believe their stock prices don’t reflect intrinsic asset value—and they’re willing to buy their own portfolios at a discount. As Bisnow put it, “REITs are furiously buying back their own shares… [seeing] the bottom of a long down run for CRE.”
American Tower and Crown Castle, by contrast, held off on buybacks this quarter, focusing instead on preserving balance sheet flexibility. American Tower raised its full-year revenue guidance and continued investing in mid-band deployment and international expansion. Crown Castle emphasized its repositioning around tower assets and the ongoing simplification of its business.
Each REIT is taking a different path, but the underlying strategy is consistent: preserve capital, protect the base, and create value by sharpening focus—whether through internal investment, external messaging, or disciplined shareholder returns.
Infrastructure Is Only as Smart as the Data Behind It
The momentum behind tower leasing and amendment activity isn’t slowing—it’s intensifying. During the Q1 2025 earnings call, American Tower CEO Steven Vondran highlighted the increasing demand from major U.S. carriers, stating: “The large U.S. carriers have publicly stated aggressive goals to substantially complete 5G equipment upgrades across nearly all of their networks by the end of 2026 and are driving broad-based amendment activity complemented by the early signs of capacity-oriented new site demand. In fact, Q1 represented our fifth consecutive quarter of sequential increases in both application volumes and services revenue, which grew roughly 60% and over 140% year-over-year, respectively.”
That level of activity puts added pressure on infrastructure professionals across the ecosystem—tower owners, carriers, and engineering teams alike—to get siting decisions right the first time. As capital constraints intensify and deployment timelines shrink, there’s little room for guesswork.
“Telco REITs have long relied on the strength of their leasing models,” said LightBox’s Griffin. “But as site volumes rise and networks become denser, the ability to quickly identify viable locations, understand permitting risk, and evaluate geospatial context will become a real differentiator.”
In a landscape where new technologies—small cells, fixed wireless, satellite constellations—are reshaping expectations around coverage and speed, tower infrastructure remains essential. But the edge is getting smarter. And that means data has to be, too.
Looking Ahead: What to Watch in H2 2025
As the second half of the year unfolds, REITs will continue to optimize portfolios while watching interest rates, federal infrastructure funding, and new competitive models. Fiber pullbacks may be temporary—but capital discipline likely isn’t. Griffin further emphasized that as AI-driven use cases, edge computing, and densification reshape what “coverage” means, towers are well-positioned to remain the foundation of that next-gen ecosystem.
For infrastructure investors and operators, Q1 sent a clear message: the market may shift, but the value of dependable, cash-flowing assets doesn’t.
Smart capital is staying grounded.
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