# Crown Castle Raises 2026 Guidance as It Buys 400 Ground Leases and Buys Out Carrier Revenue Rights

> Crown Castle lifted full-year 2026 guidance after paying $275 million for tower revenue rights and plans to buy more than 400 ground leases.

- Published: 2026-10-29T02:30:43+00:00
- Section: Earnings & Results
- Author: News Desk
- URL: https://newsforagent.com/news/2026-10-29/crown-castle-raises-2026-guidance-ground-leases
- Source: [The Motley Fool](https://www.fool.com/earnings/takeaways/2026/10/28/crown-castle-3-key-takeaways-for-long-term-investors/?source=iedfolrf0000001)

## Key takeaways

- Crown Castle raised its full-year 2026 financial guidance on its third-quarter 2026 earnings call held October 21, 2026.
- Crown Castle paid $275 million to acquire a residual economic interest on a subset of tower sites and extend lease terms with a key carrier.
- Crown Castle expects to purchase more than 400 ground leases in 2026, more than double the number completed in 2025.
- Chief Financial Officer Sunit Patel said 2026 should mark the low point for organic growth.

[Crown Castle](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0000nc8/crown-castle) raised its full-year 2026 financial guidance on its third-quarter 2026 earnings call, held October 21, 2026, after simplifying its corporate operations. [The Motley Fool](https://www.fool.com/earnings/takeaways/2026/10/28/crown-castle-3-key-takeaways-for-long-term-investors/?source=iedfolrf0000001) reported the guidance increase and the tower operator's plans to buy more than 400 ground leases in 2026, more than double the 2025 pace. Crown Castle owns and operates roughly 40,000 cell towers across the United States, leasing space to mobile carriers, government entities and enterprises under long-term colocation contracts.

## Crown Castle's $275 Million Carrier Agreement

Crown Castle paid $275 million to acquire a residual economic interest on a subset of tower sites, buying out revenue-sharing rights so it keeps more rental income. The agreement also extends lease terms with a key carrier, which the company said removes near-term cancellation risk on those properties.

"We resolved a long-standing commercial issue in the quarter with one of our largest customers that advances our strategic relationship and positions us for future growth opportunities," said Chris Hillabrant, Crown Castle's president and chief executive officer.

Hillabrant also said management is accelerating ground lease buyouts, purchasing the land beneath its towers to eliminate ongoing rental payments to third-party landlords. "In 2026, we expect to purchase more than 400 ground leases, more than double the number completed in 2025," he said.

## Crown Castle's Tower Business After the Fiber Sale

According to akta.pro [company records](https://akta.pro/company-data), Crown Castle completed an $8.5 billion sale of its Fiber Solutions business to Zayo Group for $4.25 billion and its Small Cell business to Arium Networks and EQT for $4.3 billion in May 2026, leaving it as the only U.S.-focused large publicly traded pure-play tower company. The same records show first-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.01 billion, down 4.9% year over year, and site rental revenue of $961 million, down 5% on $49 million in DISH contract terminations. Tower leasing accounts for about 70% of revenue.

## SpaceX Talks and Spectrum Deals Before the Call

On October 22, 2026, shares of Crown Castle and American Tower rose after Bloomberg reported SpaceX was in talks to secure at least 80,000 cell sites across the U.S., according to The future of trading. A day later, Datacenterdynamics reported that Hillabrant cited recent spectrum acquisitions by AT&T, Verizon and SpaceX as a growth opportunity and said Crown Castle is in talks with potential customers including SpaceX. On October 15, 2026, Business Wire Blog reported that Zayo ranked No. 6 on Vertical Systems Group's Mid-2026 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD after acquiring Crown Castle's Fiber Solutions business.

## Crown Castle's 2026 Growth Outlook

Hillabrant said surging mobile data usage and artificial intelligence workloads require higher network capacity from carriers, which he sees as a tailwind for tower leasing and localized edge computing. "We continue to expect 2026 to mark the low point for organic growth," said Sunit Patel, Crown Castle's chief financial officer. Hillabrant said cost discipline and ground lease buyouts support expanding operating margins through 2030.

## Companies in this story

- [Crown Castle company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0000nc8/crown-castle) · website: https://www.crowncastle.com

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