Crown Castle raises annual site rental revenue forecast on robust demand

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(Reuters) -Wireless tower operator Crown Castle on Wednesday raised its annual site rental revenue forecast for the second time, helped by steady demand for wireless infrastructure services.

Crown Castle derives majority of its revenue from leasing out tower infrastructure to U.S. wireless carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile US, and Verizon Communications on a long-term basis.

With about 40,000 cellular towers across the U.S., Crown Castle is looking to focus on growing its tower business, which is expected to benefit from the largest U.S. carriers upgrading their networks to 5G and increasing capacity to meet booming data demand.

The real estate investment trust now sees annual site rental revenue in the range of $4.01 billion to $4.05 billion, compared with its earlier projection of between $4 billion and $4.04 billion.

Analysts expect earnings growth of real estate investment trusts to improve going into 2026, as pressures from supply, tenant churn, and high development capex ease.

Crown Castle posted site rental revenue of $1.01 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, compared with an average estimate of $1 billion.

Its adjusted funds from operations came in at $1.12 per share, compared with $1.20 a year earlier.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Maju Samuel)