Verizon is allegedly considering a sale of some of its cell towers in the US.

As reported by Bloomberg, the carrier has hired advisers to gauge interest from potential buyers for a package of roughly 5,000 to 6,000 towers, according to people familiar with the matter.

A sale could bring in more than $3 billion, one of the people said, though no such sale is guaranteed to happen.

Verizon declined to comment to DCD about the sale.

The carrier has previously sold some of its tower assets, notably in 2015.

At the time, Verizon sold the rights to lease and operate about 11,000 towers to American Tower Corp. for an upfront payment of $5bn. That deal allowed Verizon to raise funds for spectrum and pay down debt.

In 2013, rival carrier AT&T sold 9,700 towers to Crown Castle for $4.8bn to fund the upgrade of its network.

A number of telecom companies have sold off infrastructure assets such as cell towers, often through sale-and-leaseback deals, in order to pay down debt or help fund their respective network rollout.

Some carriers have even spun the assets out to become separate entities and sold stakes in said entity, such as Vodafone which spun off its tower assets into Vantage Towers, before selling stakes to investment firms KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

Update: Crown Castle CEO Steven Moskovitz said the company isn't immediately pursuing M&A opportunities, when asked whether it's interested in Verizon's tower assets, as reported by DCD on July 23, 2024.