CCI vs SUNB Comparison

Crown Castle owns or manages roughly 40,000 wireless towers in the United States. It leases space on its towers to wireless service providers, which install equipment to support their wireless networks. The company has a very concentrated customer base, with about 90% of its revenue from the Big Three US mobile carriers: Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. Crown Castle has plans to divest its fiber business, which is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2026. After that, it will be a stand-alone tower operator. Crown Castle operates as a real estate investment trust.

Sunbelt Rentals (formerly UK-based Ashtead Group) is the number two equipment rental company in the US (11% market share), with a smaller presence in Canada and the UK. Sunbelt operates a rental fleet of just over $15 billion across a network of 1,200 stores in the US, nearly CAD 2 billion of fleet and 135 stores in Canada, and GBP 1.1 billion and 190 stores in the UK. The company has experienced rapid growth over the past decade as its customers increasingly turn to rental versus owning equipment outright. The general tool business has been augmented by the Specialty Rental business, which has grown to 30% of the mix. Revenue is now greater than 50% nonconstruction, with the remainder focused more directly on commercial construction.