New sources of funding are available for digital infrastructure as more institutional investors target the space and hard assets rotate back into favor with investors. But the communications infrastructure arena is expanding, and now data centers, fiber, and satellites, compete with towers for investor attention and dollars. Within the tower industry, U.S. owners must compete for investment with international tower operators, who continue to demonstrate that higher risk can bring higher rewards. Meanwhile, U.S. operators are exploring new ways to monetize their real estate, including mini data centers and mobile edge compute infrastructure. Will these create new opportunities for the industry? Are cell towers still the ‘best business ever’?
