As real estate owners and investors navigate high borrowing costs and pressure on rental income, one opportunity to generate liquidity and enhance long-term value is often overlooked – the potential to turn rooftops, façades, and land parcels into income-producing telecom infrastructure sites. 

Across the country, wireless carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are racing to expand their networks to support higher bandwidth, increased data consumption, and next generation technologies like 5G. Expanding networks means deploying tens of thousands of new antennas, small cells, and towers across urban, suburban, and rural landscapes. Where will this equipment go? The majority will be sited on real estate, creating a significant opportunity for real estate portfolios to tap into the multi-billion-dollar telecom market. 

Real estate portfolios with dozens or hundreds of properties need to treat telecom infrastructure as a complementary asset class that can be marketed, developed, and leveraged for financial gain – either for lump sum payments or additional recurring monthly revenue.