American Tower reaches 23,000 sites deployed in Brazil

American Tower Corporation (ATC), the world’s leading wireless infrastructure company, said it reached 23,000 sites deployed in Brazil, its largest Latin American market.

This is up from the 20,643 that the group reported at end-September, in its Q3 financial report. At end-June, the company had 22,839 Brazil sites.

Of the 1,578 sites built globally during 3Q22, 68 were in Latin America. In the same quarter last year, new builds in the region totaled 202. 

ATC’s Latin America portfolio totaled 45,558 owned towers as of September 30. Worldwide, ATC said it owns 223,000 sites.

The company had plans to build approximately 6,500 new sites worldwide in 2022, of which 500 were meant to be in Latin America. In 2021, its new towers in the region totaled 600.

By number of towers, Brazil is the third largest market for ATC after the US and India. ATC launched operations in the country over 22 years ago.

In Latin America, ATC's second biggest market is Mexico (9,627 sites at end-September, down from 10,027 at end-June), Colombia (4,977, down from 4,982), Peru (3,938, down from 4,379), Chile (3,738, down from 3,875), Paraguay (1,445, flat) Costa Rica (695, down from 697) and Argentina (495, down from 503).

ATC’s main clients in the region are Telefónica, with whom it has tower contracts in all markets except Peru; AT&T (contracts in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico); América Móvil (all markets); and Telecom Italia (Brazil).

Latin America is the second most important geography for ATC after the US and Canada, accounting for 16.1% of its total property revenue in 3Q22. 

Total revenue in the region reached US$420mn in the quarter, up from US$391mn in the same period of 2021. Latin American sales in January-September amounted to US$1.27bn, compared with US$1.09bn in the first nine months of 2021.