Crown Castle recently reported earnings for Q4/2025 and full year 2025 results. The company is currently undergoing a major strategic pivot toward becoming a pure-play tower operator, a year of transition as mentioned by their CEO, highlighted by the upcoming sale of its fiber and small cell businesses and a planned 20% workforce reduction to streamline operations.
It remains active in purchasing ground leases via perpetual easement, prepaid leases, and land purchases, however has not set a goal for 2026 forecast spend, with it being part of their discretionary CapEx of $150 million to $250 million, discussed in further detail below.
Overall Highlights:
- 2026 Organic Growth of 3.5%
- Small cell and fiber sale to Zayo / EQT has not completed, but is anticipated in first half 2026
- Plan to pay down debt with $7 billion of the proceeds
- Lawsuit against DISH to recover $3.5 billion in contracted revenue
- Workforce reduction of 20% – accelerated as a result of DISH’s default
Quotable: re: DISH Network and their contractual default to property owners and tower owners
“Second, we continue to enforce our rights under the terms of our agreement with DISH. After DISH defaulted on its payment obligations back in January, Crown Castle exercised its right to terminate the agreement.”
Chris Hillabrandt | CEO, Crown Castle
“I mean, I don’t think we wanna go into the specifics about our legal strategy and the timing of that. I think, you know, if we kind of take a step back and say, recap, we’ve taken steps. We’ve filed suit against DISH. We have as an industry under the auspice of WIA, gone in to meet with the FCC commissioner to kind of make our case of why we believe that DISH should be obligated to pay for its bills. And we continue to take a number of steps, which I won’t list here in details, but include all manner of activities, as Crown specifically to be aggressive in defending our shareholder interests.”
Chris Hillabrandt | CEO, Crown Castle
“With DISH in default, we exercise the termination rights for the agreement and can accelerate the entire obligations now. And this termination was because this is the remedy that was called for when a party defaults. And so in the end, we’re vigorously enforcing our rights and trying to protect our shareholders for the terms of the agreement.
Sunit Patel | CFO, Crown Castle
Quotable: re: New Tower Builds and Disciplined Capital Spend
“Maybe to build on that, one is we’ve said we’re gonna be very selective and really only pursue opportunities that have those attractive economics that Sunit mentioned. But more importantly, if you look at the dynamics of the industry, one of the things that’s happened since COVID is the price to build a new tower has gone up considerably. And so it has been a headwind for the industry in terms of build overall. In terms of the business case that you have to have. And oftentimes, in the past, we would build a single carrier tower and hope to get additional colocators, became increasingly difficult.”
Chris Hillabrandt | CEO, Crown Castle
Quotable: re: Crown Castle and their 2026 vision
“But want to remind everybody, this is a year of transition for our company. You know, we’re executing the sale agreement. We’re managing through DISH. Putting a reorganization of the go-forward team in place. And so while we’re focused on working to become a best-in-class operator, and updating systems and improving operational effectiveness, by streamlining and automating processes and tools, it’s going to take a while. So we accelerated our activity now as a response to the current situation with DISH. And we have good ideas of where we’re gonna go.”
Chris Hillabrandt | CEO, Crown Castle
Crown Castle Land Buyout Program:
- Crown Castle significantly accelerated its land acquisition strategy in 2025, increasing its expenditure to secure the ground beneath its towers by 32% compared to the previous year
- This strategic investment reached a total of $77 million as the company moved to solidify long-term control over its tower sites from property owners
Chart: 10K
- 30% of towers that Crown Castle has, the ground is owned, with contributing to 33% of their revenue
- 14% of Crown Castle towers have final lease expirations of 10 years or less
- These are the assets that Crown Castle and its vendors will be contacting property owners the most, with heavy focus in order to secure future revenue
Chart: 10K
- Crown Castle identifies the importance of securing the land beneath their telecom infrastructure via lease extension, land purchase, or easement transactions
- The partnership between property owners and Crown Castle is critical to their success
- As Crown Castle pivots to a “pure-play” tower model (selling off its fiber and small cell units), its macro towers are now its primary revenue engine
- Controlling the land eliminates the risk of a third-party landlord refusing a lease renewal or demanding exorbitant rates at expiration
Risk Statement: 10K
As Crown Castle pivots to a pure-play tower model, your land is their most valuable asset. JW Tower & Telecom Consulting provides the market intelligence property owners need to navigate buyouts, easements, and renewals in this new 2026 landscape.
