The later months of 2019 saw feverish activity in the cell towers market, with more operators looking to offload their passive infrastructure into joint ventures or to independent towercos. The new year began with some new transactions – Cellnex continued on the acquisition spree that has made it the biggest pure-play tower operator in Europe, and Telefónica made a sale of assets in Ecuador as part of its dual strategy of offloading more sites, and defocusing on Latin America (except Brazil). Spanish towerco Cellnex, which dubs itself the ‘American Tower of Europe’, has spent more than €6.4bn ($7.16bn) since April on entering or expanding in seven countries. It has now added Portugal to its footprint, which already includes Spain, Italy,…