DIGITALBRIDGE
One standout example is Vertical Bridge’ s US $ 3.3bn agreement with Verizon, under which Vertical Bridge acquired exclusive rights to lease, operate and manage more than 6,300 wireless towers across the US. Under the deal, Verizon continues to use space on those towers via a leaseback programme. Vertical Bridge makes additional revenue by leasing tower capacity to other operators – converting what were once single-tenant sites into multi-tenant revenue drivers.“ Verizon can’ t deliver its service without the towers we own,” Steven says.“ It’ s a truly symbiotic relationship.”
In Europe, a similar model is deployed with Deutsche Telekom, where DigitalBridge co-invests in and operates tower networks alongside the operator and other investors – delivering growth, scale and shared upside.
Beyond cell towers DigitalBridge’ s portfolio extends beyond towers. The firm actively manages and operates businesses across the full digital infrastructure spectrum, including data centre platforms and fibre networks. By applying the same operating discipline to adjacent assets, Steven has helped expand the definition of what is considered digital infrastructure and launched outdoor media infrastructure. This new adjacency emerged from observing the similarities between telecom towers and billboards – both passive physical structures, generating recurring lease income.
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