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The coloca on push The other big finding from the WIA's research is the rising interest in "coloca ons" on regular cell towers. "Coloca on has been a major factor in the success of the US wireless infrastructure model, benefi ng both the industry and the environment," according to the report. "By allowing mul ple operators to share network infrastructure, coloca on enhances cost efficiency while reducing the physical footprint of wireless deployments." Big cell towers o en house mul ple antennas and radios, allowing mul ple mobile network operators to deliver service across various spectrum bands. According to the WIA, "the industry is pu ng more equipment on exis ng tower facili es and increasing the rate of coloca on." Based on the group's latest count, there were 154,800 cell towers in the US at the end of 2024, up from 153,400 at the end of 2023. Most of those towers can host equipment from mul ple operators. An issue of coverage The financial analysts at New Street Research speculated that rising interest in coloca ons is due to operators' efforts to plug 5G coverage gaps. "We are pre y sure the new coloca ons the carriers are undertaking in exis ng markets are driven by coverage needs rather than capacity needs," the analysts wrote in a recent note to investors. "The upper midband spectrum they are all deploying doesn't cover the same geography their lower midband spectrum did (despite their hopes that it would). As such, they need to fill in gaps in upper midband coverage in markets where they have already completed the [cell tower] amendment cycle." A cell tower "amendment" is a modifica on to an exis ng cell site's equipment, o en to allow an operator to install new radios for new spectrum bands, like midband C-band, 3.45GHz or 2.5GHz. Thus, operators like T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T are finding that they need to put their midband radio equipment on more cell towers in order to cover a given area, according to the New Street analysts. In the early days of 5G, wireless operators had hoped to use the same cell tower grid for midband 5G as for lowband 5G. However, signals in midband spectrum may not travel as far as signals in lowband spectrum. Thus, operators with a cell tower grid designed for lowband spectrum may be finding that they need more cell towers to support midband spectrum buildouts than they did with lowband spectrum buildouts. Ar cle credit: h ps://www.lightreading.com/5g/5g-small- cells-are-out-coloca ons-are-in-report Talleycom.com SHEET QUARTER 2 2025

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