Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Vertical Bridge CEO Alex Gellman Talks Towers

In a wide-ranging, exclusive two-part interview with Inside Towers Managing Editor Jim Fryer and Business Editor John Celentano, Alex Gellman, CEO of Vertical Bridge REIT LLC, based in Boca Raton, FL, shared his perspectives on the current state of the tower business and his outlook for 2022. This is the second installment of a two-part series.

Alex Gellman, CEO of Vertical Bridge, the nation’s largest independent tower operator, made no bones about it: he is bullish on the macro tower business. With cash flow generated from multiple master leases and strong operating metrics, he echoed the BBE acronym offered by an industry analyst: “Best Business Ever.” But Gellman said even in a roaring market, a company must be careful as to how they use their assets and what opportunities they pursue.

“We need to be more disciplined in what to accept and what sites to deploy,” he said. How carriers play the various hands they are being dealt is key. C-band, he said, will drive network activity for Verizon. 

“Macro infill will take a bigger share of capex. That will shift [to small cells] when true 5G happens, but we won’t see it before the next five years,” he said. “Two areas of activity will prevail in that time: densification of the macro network with C-band and 3.5 GHz, and to a lesser degree, 2.5 GHz PCS frequency for wide area coverage.” Continue Reading

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