FAST vs CCI Comparison

Fastenal began as an industrial retailer, expanding its product portfolio from nuts and bolts to cutting tools, safety equipment, and janitorial supplies. It transitioned into a distributor by building out a dense network of branches close to its business customers. Once a customer becomes large enough, Fastenal installs vending machines and its own personnel on-site. Today, these on-site locations exceed Fastenal's branch count and remain the firm's main focus for expansion. Fastenal acts as a one-stop outsourcing partner for its industrial customers, offering value-added services along with a wide breadth of maintenance, repair, and operations supplies.

Crown Castle owns and leases roughly 40,000 cell towers in the United States. It also owns more than 90,000 route miles of fiber. It leases space on its towers to wireless service providers, which install equipment on the towers to support their wireless networks. Crown Castle's towers and fiber are predominantly in the largest US cities. The company has a very concentrated customer base, with about 75% of its revenue from the Big Three US mobile carriers. Crown Castle operates as a real estate investment trust. It has announced plans to divest its fiber business, which should be finalized in 2026. After that, Crown will be a stand-alone tower operator.