News Fact Checking
I have just read a Yahoo\Finance News article written under an AAP banner "Phone tower play for retail investors"
Whoever (originally) wrote that article, failed to obtain sufficient informed technical advice.
The use of current 3G/4G cellular towers for 5G roll-out is purely a temporary "quick-fix" method to get some 5G coverage up and operating quickly over a few km radius from the towers.
Such large-sized coverage areas will soon become saturated as the traffic from growing numbers of users increases.
5G is designed to to operate with many ( thousands) of much smaller area coverage cells of few 100 (even a few 10's) of metres diameter.
Each 5G cell doesn't need (or want) tall towers and large area coverage.
As 5G utilisation and coverage increases, The small radio/electronics 5G cell equipments will be mounted only a few metres above the ground level on convenient building structures (even inside buildings)
So, while there will continue to be useful roles for the existing tall towers, there will not be a need for an "explosive" growth in tower numbers.
Telstra (and others) understand 5G technology and needs very well.
They can see "the writing on the wall".
That's why they are hiving-off the tower ownership parts of their business.
There are other (far better) retail investor growth opportunities in 5G expansion than the tower ownership the article title suggests.
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John Macey commented
Further to my message earlier today:-
In the article, AAP state that a Mr Humphreys said that 5G demand would be “very high” - I agree with that!
But it's not clear that he also said “up to 10 times more towers will be needed to transmit signals” or if that comment was added by a journalist.
Maybe Mr Humphreys (or the journalist) wrongly equate 5G radio/electronics cell equipment with (tall) towers?
Later 5G deployment won't need tall towers.
In many instances, no tower/pole support at all.