LTE deployments mean new dollars for tower companies

From Fierce Wireless: As LTE deployments in the United States accelerate this year, the nation’s tower companies are ready for a fresh influx of revenue from both new site deployments and expansions of existing sites.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said his company is building 2,000 new cell sites this year. According to estimates from RBC Capital Markets, AT&T also will have around 3,250 improvements to existing sites, with the majority of the work being done on LTE, as well as legacy HSPA work.

Verizon Wireless is expected to have between 1,000 and 1,300 new site deployments and 2,500 to 3,000 expansions to existing sites (known in the industry as site “amendments”), with the bulk of that for LTE.

Due to their smaller scale, U.S. Cellular, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless are all expected to have total deployment and expansion activity within the mid-hundreds range, according to RBC.

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