Year-end 2021 tallies of independent tower companies around the world reflect the demand for wireless infrastructure as their carriers respond to secular tailwinds of mobile data demand, IoT and coverage in urban and rural markets. Tower counts among all companies have grown year-over-year in high single-digit or low double-digit range through organic growth, acquisitions, and build-to-suits.
Some acquisitions are from other tower companies but mainly from MNOs divesting passive tower assets to raise capital for network modernization and expansion. Towercos become the landlords while MNOs remain as tenants. Tower tenancies are in the 1-2 per tower range, higher in some markets like North America.
American Tower (NYSE: AMT) is the largest independent towerco in the world with over 218,000 towers in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. India is AMT’s largest market with nearly 75,000 towers. In 2022, the company is planning to build 6,000-7,000 towers in its international markets, particularly in India.
Indus Towers, formerly Bharti Infratel, is India’s leading provider of passive telecom infrastructure with a portfolio of 184,748 telecom towers. This tally makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in India with presence in all 22 telecom circles.
Cellnex Telecom, a Telefónica spin off based in Barcelona, Spain, has a pan-European portfolio totaling close to 102,000 towers. Cellnex is currently the largest towerco in Europe.
Vantage Towers, a Vodafone spin off headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, owns and operates 45,700 towers across eight European countries. Vantage has minority partnership positions with INWIT in Italy and Cornerstone in the U.K., giving the company access to a total of 82,200 towers.
Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) owns and operates 40,156 towers virtually all in the U.S. While not operating on a multinational scale like most of its peers, the company is a significant global tower company, nonetheless.
IHS Towers, the operating unit of London, U.K.-based IHS Holdings (NYSE: IHS), at year-end 2021 reported 31,043 active towers in Africa, South America, and the Middle East. With pending acquisitions of 5,709 towers from MTN South Africa and 2,115 sites from GTS SP5 in Brazil, IHS pro forma has a total of 38,867 towers in 11 countries.
SBA Communications’ (NASDAQ: SBAC) portfolio consists of 34,177 towers, split 51 percent in the U.S. and 49 percent in South America and Africa, namely, South Africa and Tanzania.
In November 2021, Paris, France-based MNO Orange created TOTEM to handle its 26,000 towers in France and Spain, the two largest countries where Orange operates.
Phoenix Tower International currently operates 15,000 active towers. Recent transactions with Cellnex in Europe and Tower Ventures in the U.S. give PTI pro forma over 18,000 telecom towers throughout Europe, the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Helios Towers, based in London, owns and operates over 9,560 towers in eight African growth markets. Pending acquisitions from Airtel Africa in several countries will add another 4,000 sites to Helios’ tower base, bringing the total to 13,500.
A couple of outliers are not shown in the list. China Tower is the largest towerco in the world with roughly 2.2 million towers in operation. However, China Tower is state-owned with almost all of its operations in mainland China.
DigitalBridge Group (NYSE: DBRG) has an aggregate of over 30,000 active sites in North America and Latin America, and parts of Europe. These towers are spread among five DBRG portfolio companies led by Vertical Bridge which operates around 9,000 towers, mainly in the U.S.
As Inside Towers reported, Deutsche Telekom is offering to sell its tower portfolio of 32,800 towers managed by Deutsche Funkturm, part of DT’s GD Towers division that has another 7,000 towers in Austria. Potential bidders include Cellnex, American Tower, Vantage Towers and TOTEM.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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