Crown Castle Inc.

Thank you, Bailey, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today as we discuss our fourth quarter 2025 results. With me on the call this afternoon are Chris Hillebrandt, Crown Castle's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sunit Patel, Crown Castle's Chief Financial Officer. To aid the discussion, we have posted supplemental materials in the investor section of our website at crowncastle.com that will be referenced throughout the call. This conference call will contain forward-looking statements which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, and actual results may vary materially from those expected. Information about potential factors which could affect our results is available in the press release and the risk factor sections of the company's SEC filings. Our statements are made as of today, February 4th, 2026, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, today's call includes discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Tables reconciling these non-GAAP financial measures are available in the supplemental information package in the investor section of the company's website at crowncastle.com. I would like to remind everyone that having an agreement to sell our fiber segment means that the fiber segment results are required to be reported within Crown Castle's financial statements as discontinued operations. Consistent with last quarter, the company's full year 2026 outlook and fourth quarter results do not include contributions from what we previously reported under the fiber segment except as otherwise noted. With that, let me turn the call over to Chris.

Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. We delivered the full year 2025 guide, exceeding the midpoint across all key metrics as we focused on operational execution across our portfolio. As we turn to 2026, we are in the middle of major changes across our business as we take several actions to position Crown Castle to maximize shareholder value. First, we remain on track to close the sale of our small cell and fiber businesses, which we anticipate will occur in the first half of 2026. We are completing the operational separation of our three businesses and executing on our transition plans. Upon the close of our small cell and fiber businesses, approximately 60% of our consolidated workforce will move with the sale as we transition to a simpler US-only tower business. We have been notified that the Department of Justice has closed its Hart-Scott-Rodina review and is not requiring any action related to the transaction. We only have a handful of approvals remaining at the state and federal level. Second, we continue to enforce our rights under the terms of our agreement with DISH. After DISH defaulted on its payment obligations back in January, Crown Castle exercised its right to terminate the agreement. As a result, we are seeking to recover in excess of $3.5 billion from DISH in remaining payments owed under the agreement. Crown Castle is supportive of AT&T and SpaceX obtaining the announced 3.45 gigahertz, 600 megahertz, AWS 4, H block, and unpaired AWS 3 spectrum bands, which would put this valuable public resource into active use for the wireless industry and the American people. That said, we will continue to do everything possible to enforce our rights under our contract with DISH. Third, We are taking decisive action to maximize value for our shareholders in response to DISH's actions by announcing a restructuring plan to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our standalone U.S. tower business following the anticipated close of our small cell and fiber business sale. Due to DISH's contractual default, we have accelerated and expanded our restructuring plan to realign staffing levels consistent with the removal of all future DISH activities. In total, we are reducing our tower and corporate workforce in continuing operations by approximately 20%, ending at about 1,250 full-time employees. In combination with other cost reductions, we expect to deliver a $65 million reduction in annualized run rate operating costs. The majority of staffing reductions will take effect in the first quarter, while the non-labor reductions will be phased in throughout the year following the anticipated close of the small cell and fiber business sale. Finally, I would like to reaffirm our capital allocation framework and update our expected use of proceeds from the small cell and fiber business sale. First, when we reset our dividend last year, we considered the composition and risk profile of our cash flows, and as a result, we expect to maintain our dividend per share at $4.25 on an annualized basis until reaching our targeted payout ratio of 75% to 80% of AFFO, excluding the impact of amortization of prepaid rent. Thereafter, we intend to grow the dividend in line with AFFO, excluding the impact of amortization of prepaid rent. Second, we plan to invest between $150 million to $250 million of annual net capital expenditures to add and modify our towers to purchase land under our towers, and to invest in technology to enhance and automate our systems and processes. Third, we plan to utilize the cash flow we generate to repurchase shares while maintaining our investment-grade credit rating. Fourth and finally, we plan to remain at a target leverage range between six and six and a half times using the proceeds from the small cell and fiber business sales. As a result, we plan to allocate approximately $1 billion to share repurchases and approximately $7 billion to repaid debt. As I look forward to a full year 2026 and beyond, I'm excited by Crown Castle's opportunity as the only large publicly traded tower operator with an exclusive focus on the U.S. The U.S. tower model continues to benefit from attractive business characteristics, including long-term revenues from investment grade customers, contracted escalators, and high incremental margins. I believe that these characteristics will be supported by continued mobile data demand growth and a significant volume of spectrum being made available to motivated mobile network operators. To maximize revenue growth and profitability, we are focusing on becoming the best operator of U.S. towers with the following strategic priorities. One, we are empowering the Crown Castle team to make the best and timely business decisions by investing in our systems to improve the quality and accessibility of asset information and improving customer experience on cycle time and their interactions with us. Two, we are strengthening our ability to meet the business's needs by streamlining and automating processes to enhance operational effectiveness. And three, we will continue to drive efficiencies across the business. We believe that these strategic priorities, combined with our disciplined capital allocation framework and investment-grade balance sheet, will drive attractive risk-adjusted returns. With that, I'll turn it over to Sunit to walk us through the details of the quarter and our full year 2026 outlook.

Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. Our full year 2025 results were highlighted by 4.9% organic growth, excluding the impact of spring churn, as our customers continue to augment their 5G networks. Due to our outperformance at organic growth, we ended the year near the high end of the guidance range for 2025 site rental revenues. The outperformance at revenues combined with higher than expected services contribution, ongoing efficiency initiatives, and lower interest expense allowed us to exceed the high end of the guidance range for 2025 adjusted EBITDA and FFO. Turning to our 2026 outlook, at the midpoints, we are projecting site rental revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and AFFO of $3.9 billion, $2.7 billion, and $1.9 billion, which are meaningfully impacted by the following three items. First, due to the termination of our contract with DISH Wireless announced in January, our 2026 full-year guidance does not include any contributions from DISH resulting in $220 million of churn in full year 2026. Second, for the purposes of building our full year 2026 outlook, we have assumed the small cell and fiber business sale transaction will close on June 30th. Third, as Chris mentioned, we're reducing our run rate operating costs by $65 million on an annualized basis resulting in a $55 million impact to full year 2026 and a $10 million incremental impact to 2027 due to timing. Moving to page five, our full year 2026 outlook includes organic growth at the midpoint of 3.3%, or $130 million, excluding the impact of sprint cancellations and dish terminations in 2026. Full year 2026 organic growth is expected to be 3.5% at the midpoint if dish revenues are excluded from prior year site rental billings. This compares to 3.8% for full year 2025 on a comparable basis, excluding dish revenues from prior year. We expect our 2026 organic growth guide of 3.5% growth to mark the low point. This expected growth is more than offset at site rental revenues due to the $20 million impact of sprint cancellations, $220 million of discharges, and a $90 million decrease in non-cash straight-line revenues and amortization of prepaid rent. Turning to slide 6, the expected $110 million decrease to site rental billings is more than offset by the following items resulting in an anticipated $15 million increase in 2026 AFFO compared to 2025. A $25 million reduction in expenses as the staffing and other cost reductions drive $50 million of expense savings in full-year 2026, partially offset by standard increases on the remaining cost base. A $5 million increase in service contribution as service activity levels similar to 2025 are complemented by $5 million of expense savings from the workforce reduction. A $120 million decrease in interest expense, primarily from the repayment of approximately $7 billion of about 4% interest rate debt following the anticipated close of the small cell and fiber business cell, partially offset by refinancing. A $25 million decrease in other items driven primarily by a decrease in amortization of prepaid rent. Turning to page 7, we decreased our guidance for AFFO in the 12 months following close by $240 million to $2.1 billion at the midpoint. Our original guidance of $2.34 billion at the midpoint included a $280 million contribution from DISH in the second half of 2026 and the first half of 2027, which we have removed. This is partially offset by a $40 million reduction in interest expense from increasing the assumed debt repayment following the anticipated close of the small cell and fiber business cell by approximately $1 billion to approximately $7 billion. Turning to page 9, the revised guide for AFFO for the 12 months following the close of the small cell and fiber business, which includes a half year of growth compared to full year 2026, is $180 million higher and consists of under $20 million of interest expense savings related to the anticipated debt repayments made with the small cell and fiber business cell proceeds, $50 million of growth in the underlying business, and $10 million of cost savings related to the 2026 reduction in force. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with significant liquidity and flexibility, positioning us to efficiently maintain, effectively maintain our investment grade rating after the sale of the small cell and fiber business. based on the target capital structure and capital allocation framework that Chris mentioned earlier. In conclusion, we're pleased with our full year 2025 results and believe we are well positioned to deliver our outlook for full year 2026 and our updated range for estimated AFFO for the 12 months following the small cell and fiber business sale closing of $2.1 billion at the midpoint. We're excited by the opportunity for Crown Castle, and we believe we are taking the necessary actions to become a best-in-class U.S. tower operator. We believe our focus on operational execution, combined with our capital allocation framework and investment-grade balance sheet, will deliver attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns for shareholders. With that, operator, I'd like to open the line for questions.