Crown Castle executives have revealed that they will implement their plan to deploy 10000 small base stations this year, which is twice the number of small base stations deployed by the company in 2022. In addition, Crown Castle stated that it is expected that its deployment of small base stations will increase to 14000 nodes by 2024.
As operators shift their attention to filling the coverage gap and utilizing small base stations to address the capacity issues of 5G networks, the demand for small base stations at Crown Castle continues to grow as their 5G macro networks have been deployed on a large scale across the United States.
Prior to announcing the company’s third quarter earnings, Chris Levendos, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Crown Castle, stated in an interview with Light Reading that due to the establishment of a simplified process for deploying small base stations, the number of small base stations built by the company this year will double.
The executives of Crown Castle told investors during the company’s financial report conference call that the company currently has 115000 small base stations in operation, and it is expected that the growth of small base stations will reach 13% by 2024. Crown Castle pointed out over the phone that the number of small base stations has decreased from 120000 to 115000. This reflects the 5000 small base stations no longer needed after T-Mobile acquired Sprint.
Levendos stated that the difficulty of obtaining licenses for Crown Castle, as well as its ease of obtaining power and return travel, can help determine whether to deploy a small base station. If any issues arise in any part of this process, Crown Castle will dispatch a team to work with local and state leaders in an attempt to find a solution.
Levendos added that for Crown Castle, developing these guidelines is crucial so that it can meet the schedules of its network operator customers. We must adhere to our schedule. That’s why clients come back to us with larger investments
For Crown Castle, which had lower than expected revenue in the third quarter, the progress of small base stations is good news. Crown Castle reported a total revenue of $1.6 billion, only a 1% increase from the same period in 2022, or $9 million. The company also announced a net income of $265 million, a decrease of 37% compared to the same period last year. This includes $72 million in expenses related to the restructuring plan announced by Crown Castle in July.

The restructuring plan includes layoffs of 15% of employees, and is expected to save $30 million this year and $35 million in 2024.
But the prospects for Crown Castle in 2024 are not optimistic. Crown Castle stated that it plans to transfer approximately 1000 employee positions from multiple locations across the country to a centralized location by the end of the third quarter of 2024. It is expected that this will result in additional cost savings.
In addition, the company expects tower site rental income to be $6.4 billion in 2024, a decrease of 2% compared to 2023. The company’s net revenue is expected to be $1.23 billion, a 15% decrease from 2023.
Crown Castle CEO Jay Brown told investors during the company’s third quarter financial report conference call that the company is investing more funds in small base stations because it believes the potential of multi tenant small base station systems is attractive.