Verizon is reportedly considering selling up to 6,000 cell towers across the U.S. Estimates suggest the sale could fetch as much as $3 billion, but talks are still in the early stages and no potential buyers have been identified yet.
The move is in line with an industry trend: Many telecom giants, including Vodafone (Vantage Towers), Telefonica (Telxius) and Orange (Totem), have sold or spun off their tower portfolios in recent years. Austria’s A1 and Greece’s OTE have also followed this path.
For investors, towers are low-risk, long-term assets. Independent infrastructure companies and private equity firms have shown strong interest. For telecom operators, such sales provide a financial boost and are especially valuable as they invest heavily in the rollout of fiber optics and 5G networks.
However, in the US, many of these tower sales happened around 20 years ago, during which time independent tower companies such as American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA Communications emerged, which now own and lease the majority of the US tower infrastructure.
Verizon last sold towers in 2015, when it sold 11,000 to American Tower for $6 billion. Similarly, AT&T sold 9,700 towers to Crown Castle for $4.8 billion in 2013. Against this historical backdrop, Verizon’s new sale is notable because it signals a continued strategy to manage and monetize its assets.
