SBA Communications

“The team has been working around the clock to integrate the newly acquired sites from Millicom in Central America.”

SBA is integrating tower sites acquired from Millicom that make it the leading independent tower operator in Central America, supported by long-term master lease agreements.

“American Tower made an assumption that the real for 2026 is going to be 5.5 and you guys made an assumption it's going to be 5.2 and it's trading at 5.13.”

An analyst contrasts peer tower operator American Tower's more conservative 2026 Brazilian real FX assumption (5.5) with SBA's (5.2).

“with regard to AT&T, I think we've discussed before the structure of our MLA, which was a little bit front-end loaded in terms of payments associated with activity.”

SBA's AT&T master lease agreement was front-end loaded on payments, so recognized revenue is currently slower even though underlying activity is steadier; the agreement is up in a couple of years.

“You have C-band that's sitting with T-Mobile that has not been deployed at all yet that, at some point, we would expect them to start to deploy.”

SBA notes T-Mobile has undeployed C-band spectrum that should drive future tower activity, though its recent leasing pace with SBA has slowed cyclically.

“we do expect to see more of a contribution from Verizon because of the MLA that we signed with them late last year.”

SBA expects increased 2026 leasing contribution from Verizon under a master lease agreement signed late last year, with backlogs growing since signing.

“Results for the quarter were in line with our estimates, even with higher-than-forecasted bad debt expenses related to EchoStar.”

SBA recorded higher-than-forecast bad debt tied to EchoStar and removed all future recurring EchoStar revenue from its outlook while pursuing legal recovery, signaling EchoStar payment/credit distress.

“I think in the case of Vivo, their comments on their call, they were really talking about there being a need for greater sharing of infrastructure”

Vivo (Telefonica Brasil) is pushing for greater tower/infrastructure sharing to optimize leasing costs; SBA says it is aligned on shared-infrastructure efficiency.

“We've also had some challenges in Brazil, in particular, with Oi, not only the consolidation of Oi and their wireless operations into the existing 3 carriers”

Brazilian carrier Oi's consolidation and financial distress are driving elevated international churn for SBA (negative read-through on Oi).

“We have recently completed the final closing of all remaining Central American assets under our purchase agreement with Millicom.”

SBA acquired roughly 7,000 Central American tower sites from Millicom (Tigo); early leasing interest is running ahead of underwriting.

“In the case of DISH, first of all, they are current on their rents with us. And under our agreements with them, we expect them to honor those agreements and to pay their rents going forward.”

DISH (EchoStar) is a distressed tenant expected to churn ~$25M annually in 2027-2028; SBA insists it stay current, a negative read-through on EchoStar's network commitments.

“We have a very good relationship with T-Mobile.”

T-Mobile is SBA's leading customer with an MLA expiring in about a year; SBA expects to renew and continues heavy services work for T-Mobile.

“In terms of the spectrum that ended up in the hands of AT&T, I think, there are some limitations for sure under our agreement.”

SBA has a locked master lease agreement with AT&T; upside from AT&T's new spectrum is limited under existing terms, and some upgrades may be software-only.