UPDATE Crown Castle held its obligatory conference call yesterday following their release of Q1 earnings late Monday afternoon.
“Given the expected substantial increase in mobile data demand over the coming years, we are excited about the opportunities for growth we see as a result of our position as a leading provider of wireless infrastructure in the U.S.,” stated Jay Brown, Crown Castle’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our tower business continues to see steady levels of activity in the short term. Over the longer term, we believe there is an extended runway of growth driven by positive industry developments, including the deployment of FirstNet and spectrum from the recently completed incentive auction.”
Crown’s presentation noted their small cells business, their “contracted pipeline” has reached record levels, with nearly 25,000 nodes expected to be installed over the next 18 to 24 months. “This reflects the confidence our customers have in our ability to assist in deploying their wireless networks,” Brown said. Once completed, the pipeline will double the number of small cell nodes they have installed to date, according to Brown.
“To prepare for this anticipated level of activity,” Brown said, “we continue to invest in assets supporting our small cell deployments, such as our recently announced agreement to acquire Wilcon, as well as our node installation capabilities, including the hiring of additional employees.” As the company scales their organization to increase production toward their goal of 10,000 nodes per year, they expect to incur additional costs that have been reflected in their full year 2017 Outlook.
“We believe these investments will allow us to extend our position as a leading provider of wireless infrastructure while generating attractive returns on our investments and delivering sustained growth in dividends per share,” Brown said.
April 26, 2017
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