The Economics of Owning a Cell Tower

A cell tower with one tenant is a bad business. American Tower's own published illustration of US build economics puts a new tower at $275,000, earning $20,000 a year against $12,000 of operating costs. That is a 3% return, which is exactly why the carriers sold their towers in the first place. Now add a second tenant. Revenue goes to $50,000. Operating costs go to $13,000. You added $30,000 of revenue for $1,000 of cost, and the return jumps to 13%. A third tenant takes it to 24% and an 83% gross margin. The steel never changed. Only the tenant count did. So what goes wrong? Your tenants merge, and you cannot stop them. This is the full owner-side ledger: the ground lease you do not own, the zoning fight that is the real skill, Steven Bernstein buying 12 towers in 1997, and Crown Castle putting over $17 billion into fibre and selling it for $8.4 billion. economics of owning a cell tower, cell tower, how much does a cell tower cost, cell tower lease, cell tower on my land, how much do cell towers pay, cell tower business, own a cell tower