American Tower Forecasts Growth Trough in 2026 Before Future Network Upgrades Drive Demand
American Tower Corporation (AMT) anticipates a growth trough for organic tenant billings in 2026, with acceleration expected by 2027 as customer churn decreases and wireless network investments increase. CFO Rod Smith highlighted that U.S. carriers have largely completed initial 5G coverage deployments and are now focusing on capacity expansion through densification of existing towers and new colocations to support higher-band spectrum usage. Future demand is also expected from AI-driven uplink traffic, which could necessitate network upgrades beneficial for tower operators like American Tower. Additionally, the company's CoreSite data-center business stands to gain from rising bandwidth consumption and cloud interconnection needs. Smith noted that 5G capacity expansion, new applications driving mobile-data usage, and eventual 6G deployments will support long-term growth. American Tower is targeting margin expansion of 200–300 basis points in its tower business and mid- to upper-mid-single-digit annual AFFO-per-share growth. The company also faces potential upside from favorable resolutions of ongoing litigation with Dish Network and a Mexico arbitration case.
Topics: 2026 projections 5G expansion 6G catalysts AI-driven traffic American Tower organic growth trough