Our 2022 Predictions for the Wireless Industry

Steel in the Air’s 2022 Predictions for Cell Tower Leasing and Valuation. While 2021 certainly impacted many industries negatively, the wireless industry wasn’t one of them. This past year was a particularly strong year for tower companies and landowners. Looking forward into 2022, we see more of the same. Wireless Service Provider Predictions. Wireless service […]

Where Elliott Management’s Attack on Crown Castle Small Cell Strategy Hits and Misses

We reviewed the Elliott Management slickly produced attack on Crown Castle ($CCI). In short, Elliott believes that CCI has underperformed its peers, American Tower (AMT) and SBA Communications (SBAC). While the underperformance is clear, I also think that Elliott’s analysis omits to give proper credence to the opportunity that fiber/small cells may provide to Crown Castle that its peers will miss.

American Tower’s Aggressive Response to Build-To-Relo Towers

Previously, we wrote about Tillman Infrastructure, a tower company that has expanded significantly to build towers near existing towers to encourage wireless carriers to move from the existing tower to the new tower, all in an effort to reduce lease rates. For over a year now, tower companies have publicly discounted the impact of these “build-to-relo” […]

Desperate to Get Back at the Tower Companies: The Verizon, AT&T, and Tillman Infrastructure JV

Yesterday, in a surprise press release by Verizon, Verizon indicated that it had formed a joint venture with AT&T and Tillman Infrastructure to develop “hundreds” of communication towers with “the potential for significantly more new site locations in the future”.  Tillman Infrastructure is relatively new to the US- but owns a few thousand towers in […]

Research In Progress- Sprint vs. T-Mobile Site Overlap

We are currently working on a bespoke research project for a client where we examine the overlap between Sprint and T-Mobile cell sites.  The merger talks seem to have stalled while Softbank talks to Comcast, Charter, Warren Buffett, and anyone who will listen about merging or investing.   Nonetheless, there is still investor interest in […]

Comcast Wireless 2.0: This time it could actually work.

Implications for TowerCos and Construction Companies Tickers: CMCSA, COMM, MTZ, DY, CCI, AMT, SBAC Tags: Ken Schmidt, Wireless infrastructure Background: Analysts have been speculating about the winners of the FCC spectrum auction and the implications of those wins for the better part of a year. With the auction coming to a close and an announcement expected […]

AT&T Wins FirstNet but TowerCos are the Real Winners

FirstNet Award to AT&T Confirmed: Checks Confirm Amendment Activity before Official Announcement Tickers: T, AMT, CCI, SBAC Tags: Ken Schmidt, Wireless Infrastructure In Examining FirstNet Assumptions 12/9/2016, we reviewed the likelihood that AT&T would win the FirstNet RFP and the impact on TowerCos, Equipment OEMs, and FiberCos. As the time, the FirstNet award was stalled […]