Crown Castle Inc at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Maybe just starting at the top level with some strategic questions. There's been a lot of change at Crown Castle over the last year. You're in the midst of a strategic review of your fiber and small cell business. Can you maybe give us investors an update if any, on where you stand with that process today.

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : And it's helpful. Then as you kind of determine which piece of business you want to keep and how much of them. What are the most important factors that weigh into those decisions in terms of your overall calculus? Meaning, is it all about maximizing NPV today, present value of the assets? Or is it also about kind of preserving kind of time optionality of growth or preserving the maximum potential growth options available to you?

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Let me articulate one possible opinion, which is kind of the big view I have, which is if you've got tower business domestically that's gradually slowing if by no the reason then just scale of the overall business over time, small cells provide optionality for kind of future growth. So I guess my point is if you were to say, hey, we're going to sell the entire business, how should investors think about the growth rate of the remaining business? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 / 2:30PM, CCI.N - Crown Castle Inc at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Fair enough. Maybe I could just kind of pick on something you said, which is kind of like people always sort of just extrapolate the next thing in point. So right now, like I think leasing activity is subdued, I think it's fair to say. And I think it's probably the case for the small cell business and fiber business. And in general, to some extent, just from a cyclical perspective. So I guess, like -- I mean I could also make the devil's advocate argument like that could be the worst time to actually dispose of the business when growth prospects, if they've bottomed out effectively and can only improve from here exactly when you wouldn't want to sell. Maybe just give us maybe kind of your view on that piece. But in the case that you actually did decide to dispose of the fiber business at least, is there a scenario where you could imagine kind of continuing to build small cells and leasing back fiber from somebody else? And do those return pencil?

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Okay. Fair enough. Maybe let's just talk about your US business a little bit. And specifically, there's been some rumors in the market about a few tower portfolios that might be for sale or may not be for sale. Maybe just kind of give us an update on how you're thinking about your strategy for expanding your US tower footprint? Talk about kind of your view on public versus private valuations in the space. And I guess kind of what are the ways you would seek to ideally kind of expand that footprint?

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Yeah. Fair. Maybe just kind of talking about the growth strategy for the company or the overall algorithm. I think one of the things that's made it a little harder for investors over the past 18 months or so, it's just kind of the T-Mobile Sprint merger and given how everyone is recognizing churn effects over time in different ways, it made hard -- the comparability has been hard. Maybe just kind of help us understand, I think you already started this, once we get out from under this or excluding that medium to long term, how you think of the kind of the core growth in your business. What's the algorithm for both revenue and sort of the EBITDA and AFFO growth?

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Just want to ask you one more question about the domestic business. US government doesn't appear to have any spectrum auctions lined up imminently. Based on the way you're talking with carriers, how is that impacting their plan for investing in the business? I mean, is there a view that they're just going to kind of spread ratably and then kind of that changes when if they get new spectrum as they did with C-band in other words? Or do you think you're going to actually see some accelerated spending to maybe densify networks to more splitting of sales to sort of go at it that way instead?

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Great. I've got a bunch of questions that I would love to get to. Unfortunately, we're just about out of time, but that was a great tour to force of the business. So thanks very much, Dan, for being with us today.

Question: Jim Schneider - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. - Analyst : Thanks so much.