It is often assumed that European tower portfolios are ‘complete’ and, if anything, decommissioning is needed to consolidate high levels of parallel infrastructure put up in the 1990s and 2000s when coverage was a critical market differentiator. However there are several reasons for new build in Europe, and these will drive a growth of around 51,500 towers across the 16 markets covered in this report over the next five years, not including small cells and DAS. Nonetheless, there will still be considerable decommissioning ongoing in markets such as Spain, Italy and the UK, as parallel infrastructure is reduced.
