Tower Obligations

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Note 7 – Tower Obligations

Existing CCI Tower Lease Arrangements

In 2012, we conveyed to Crown Castle International Corp. (“CCI”) the exclusive right to manage and operate approximately 6,200 tower sites (“CCI Lease Sites”) via a master prepaid lease with site lease terms ranging from 23 to 37 years. CCI has fixed-price purchase options for the CCI Lease Sites totaling approximately $2.0 billion, exercisable annually on a per-tranche basis at the end of the lease term during the period from December 31, 2035 through December 31, 2049. If CCI exercises its purchase option for any tranche, it must purchase all the towers in the tranche. We lease back a portion of the space at certain tower sites.

Assets and liabilities associated with the operation of the tower sites were transferred to special purpose entities (“SPEs”). Assets included ground lease agreements or deeds for the land on which the towers are situated, the towers themselves and existing subleasing agreements with other mobile network operator tenants that lease space at the tower sites. Liabilities included the obligation to pay ground lease rentals, property taxes and other executory costs.

We determined the SPEs containing the CCI Lease Sites (“Lease Site SPEs”) are VIEs as they lack sufficient equity to finance their activities. We have a variable interest in the Lease Site SPEs but are not the primary beneficiary as we lack the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the Lease Site SPEs’ economic performance. These activities include managing tenants and underlying ground leases, performing repair and maintenance on the towers, the obligation to absorb expected losses and the right to receive the expected future residual returns from the purchase option to acquire the CCI Lease Sites. As we determined that we are not the primary beneficiary and do not have a controlling financial interest in the Lease Site SPEs, the Lease Site SPEs are not included in our condensed consolidated financial statements.

However, we also considered if this arrangement resulted in the sale of the CCI Lease Sites for which we would de-recognize the tower assets. By assessing whether control had transferred, we concluded that transfer of control criteria, as discussed in the revenue standard, were not met. Accordingly, we recorded this arrangement as a financing whereby we recorded debt, a financial obligation, and the CCI Lease Sites tower assets remained on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. We recorded long-term financial obligations in the amount of the net proceeds received and recognize interest on the tower obligations. The tower obligations are increased by interest expense and amortized through contractual leaseback payments made by us to CCI and through net cash flows generated and retained by CCI from operation of the tower sites.

Acquired CCI Tower Lease Arrangements

Prior to the merger (the “Merger”) with Sprint Corporation (“Sprint”), Sprint entered into a lease-out and leaseback arrangement with Global Signal Inc., a third party that was subsequently acquired by CCI, that conveyed to CCI the exclusive right to manage and operate approximately 6,400 tower sites (“Master Lease Sites”) via a master prepaid lease. These agreements were assumed upon the close of the Merger, at which point the remaining term of the lease-out was approximately 17 years with no renewal options. CCI has a fixed price purchase option for all (but not less than all) of the leased or subleased sites for approximately $2.3 billion, exercisable one year prior to the expiration of the agreement and ending 120 days prior to the expiration of the agreement. We lease back a portion of the space at certain tower sites.

We considered if this arrangement resulted in the sale of the Master Lease Sites for which we would de-recognize the tower assets. By assessing whether control had transferred, we concluded that transfer of control criteria, as discussed in the revenue standard, were not met. Accordingly, we recorded this arrangement as a financing whereby we recorded debt, a financial obligation, and the Master Lease Sites tower assets remained on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

As of the closing date of the Merger, we recognized Property and equipment with a fair value of $2.8 billion and tower obligations related to amounts owed to CCI under the leaseback of $1.1 billion. Additionally, we recognized $1.7 billion in Other long-term liabilities associated with contract terms that are unfavorable to current market rates, which include unfavorable terms associated with the fixed-price purchase option in 2037.

We recognize interest expense on the tower obligations. The tower obligations are increased by the interest expense and amortized through contractual leaseback payments made by us to CCI. The tower assets are reported in Property and equipment, net on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets and are depreciated to their estimated residual values over the expected useful life of the towers, which is 20 years.

Leaseback Arrangement

On January 3, 2022, we entered into an agreement (the “Crown Agreement”) with CCI. The Crown Agreement extends the current term of the leasebacks by up to twelve years and modifies the leaseback payments for both the Existing CCI Tower Lease Arrangement and the Acquired CCI Tower Lease Arrangement. As a result of the Crown Agreement, there was an increase in our financing obligation as of the effective date of the agreement of approximately $1.2 billion, with a corresponding decrease to Other long-term liabilities associated with unfavorable contract terms. The modification resulted in a revised interest rate under the effective interest method for the tower obligations: 11.6% for the Existing CCI Tower Lease Arrangement and 5.3% for the Acquired CCI Tower Lease Arrangement. There were no changes made to either of our master prepaid leases with CCI.

The following table summarizes the balances associated with both of the tower arrangements on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets:


(in millions)	March 31, 2022		December 31, 2021
Property and equipment, net	$	2,505	$	2,548
Tower obligations	4,037		2,806
Other long-term liabilities	554		1,712

Future minimum payments related to the tower obligations are approximately $415 million for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2023, $848 million in total for the 12-month periods ending March 31, 2024 and 2025, $774 million in total for the 12-month periods ending March 31, 2026 and 2027, and $4.8 billion in total thereafter.