Digital Twins and AI Put Tower Records to Work

Kristen Beckman 

For tower companies, knowing what they own requires more than an equipment inventory. It means reconciling what is on a structure with what was designed, what tenants have leased and what the site can accommodate next. 

Digital twins and artificial intelligence are helping connect those records and put them to work—from evaluating acquired towers to identifying prospective tenants. During a recent WIA Connect (X) 365 webinar, infrastructure executives described how those tools are accelerating reviews and supporting better-informed decisions. 

They also raised a concern that becomes more consequential as companies rely on digital records: AI can misidentify equipment or show work that never happened. 

“From Digital Twins to Digital Workers: AI Moves Into Infrastructure Operations” featured Sanjay Dhawan, vice president of new business technology and operations at SBA Communications; Jason Peduto, co-founder and vice president of sales and leasing at GTC Towers; and Scott Hubble, vice president of strategic development at APC Towers. Iain Gillott, WIA’s vice president of innovation and technology, moderated. 

Connecting Site Conditions With Business Records 

For tower owners, a digital twin’s usefulness grows with the information attached to it. A visual record can show the equipment on a structure. Equipment specifications, measurements and business records allow a company to examine what that installation means for leasing and engineering decisions. 

Dhawan described SBA’s progression from counting antennas and radios to identifying equipment makes and models, documenting dimensions and understanding tower loading. Knowing the location and size of existing equipment can help assess whether another carrier could fit at a particular height. 

That inventory is also useful when acquiring towers. Dhawan described using drone flights and digital replicas to document equipment on acquired sites, establishing what each carrier has installed. 

Combining that site information with other sources supports broader planning. Carrier coverage needs, existing infrastructure and population data, for example, can help identify potential development locations for further evaluation. Dhawan emphasized the need for clean, validated data to establish a “source of truth” for that analysis. 

At GTC Towers, digital twins give the leasing team a way to examine equipment against a carrier’s lease rights. Images of individual components can help resolve questions and move an amendment forward. A digital view of the compound can also support preliminary drawings without an initial site visit. 

The applications also extend to finding prospective tenants. Peduto described using AI to cross-reference spectrum awards with tower locations — for example, asking which newly awarded licenses cover areas within 20 miles of the company’s towers. The results can give the leasing team a starting point for carrier conversations without manually comparing the lists. 

APC is using similar comparisons to understand what was built against what was designed and leased. Hubble emphasized the benefit to both parties: A shared understanding of what is deployed helps the tower owner and carrier plan for future use. 

AI is also speeding the review of the documents behind those decisions. Peduto described extracting key terms from old, repeatedly scanned leases in minutes, compared with hours previously. APC has used lease abstraction to evaluate acquisitions before the records were incorporated into its systems. 

Hubble measures those gains partly by how employees can redirect their time. He said APC’s technology decisions start with two business objectives: increasing portfolio value and improving customer experience. 

Humans in the Loop 

Lease abstraction still requires someone to review the results. 

“There’s always going to be the need for someone to go through it after and make sure everything matches up,” Peduto said. 

Peduto raised a concern involving the evidence submitted to tower owners. He recounted a story about a repair closeout image that allegedly included an AI-generated bolt that was not actually present. He also questioned how companies would guard against maintenance photographs altered to show a clean compound when the work had not been completed. 

Hubble identified a safety benefit: Where a drone inspection can provide the necessary information, it can reduce the need to send someone up the tower. 

Other tasks still require a climber. As Peduto noted, a drone might reveal a bolt that appears loose, but it cannot tighten it. A climber can also assess conditions through direct contact that imagery may not capture. 

Hubble stressed that responsibility for engineering, risk assessment and customer decisions remains with people, regardless of what AI reports. 

Digital twins and AI are already changing how tower companies review leases, evaluate acquisitions and find new tenants. But as the panelists made clear, faster answers are only valuable if they can be trusted. A wrong finding can strain a carrier relationship, and a fabricated photo can slip into a site record. That raises a harder question than whether to use these tools: where to start, who to trust, and what it will cost to maintain the results over time. 

Get the full report: From Digital Twins to Digital Workers 

 Our analysis of the WIA Connect (X) 365 webinar goes beyond the highlights, covering how to prioritize what to automate first, what to ask vendors before you commit, and the long-term costs of owning a digital twin. 

Download the Report