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What is a Cell Tower really worth?

What would you guess is the average revenue per tower for China Tower?

The answer to this is $7,002, with annual group-wide revenues of around $14.8 billion and a tower portfolio of 2.12 million towers, in 2025.

How about Bharti Airtel’s Indus Towers?

That would be $13,387, based on a portfolio of 259,622 and annual revenues of around $3.53 billion.

Sure, APAC ARPU is generally much lower than North America or Europe – we will give you that. But how about American Tower, with $10.64 billion in 2025 annual revenue? The average revenue per tower is $71,743, based on a portfolio of 148,371 towers. Of the towercos that post public data, this is the highest result.

But these headline figures only scratch the surface. The reality is far more complex: utilization varies dramatically, portfolios are a mix of owned and leased assets, and amortization reshapes how these towers should be valued. A $70,000 annual return, for example, is actually more like $1.4 million over a 20-year lifecycle.

This complexity makes the tower market challenging to forecast, with estimates varying widely as a result.

Cell Tower Forecast 2026-2031 from RAN Research, breaks through that uncertainty to present the true economics behind tower portfolios.

It is critical reading for Towercos, MNOs, and RAN vendors. New growth is vital for these firms, so understanding the competitive opportunities in this current investment cycle (and the looming 6G roadmap) is imperative.

Private equity firms investing in telecoms infrastructure will find this report essential for understanding the true scale of the opportunity.

If you’re making strategic decisions around tower infrastructure, investment, or partnerships, this is insight you can’t afford to miss.