Tower operators have been evaluating their options in emerging networks such as 5G for some time. Some, like Crown Castle, have been enthusiastic about adding small cell, WiFi, and IoT network sites to their portfolios, even though these have significantly different investment cycles and operational challenges to those of macro towers. Now the integration of edge compute processors with mobile networks could enhance the densification model for the towercos, giving them a step into the cloud infrastructure space if they can combine the management of distributed processing with that of small cell sites. Crown Castle now thinks it is in a good position to move into data center services. Last year, it took a stake in Vapor IO, a start-up…