I would like to remind everyone that having an agreement to sell our fiber segment means that the fiber segment results are required to be reported within Crown Castle's financial statements as discontinued operations. Consistent with last quarter, the company's full-year 2026 outlook and first quarter results do not include contributions from what we previously reported under the fiber segment, except as otherwise noted. We delivered solid first-quarter results and are reiterating our guidance for full-year 2026. First, we believe that acquiring land under our towers improves our margin and increases operational control of our assets, allowing us to deliver more value to the customer by meeting their needs more rapidly.
tower operator will position us to capitalize on these trends and maximize cash flow by unlocking additional organic growth and improving profitability. We believe these priorities, combined with our disciplined capital allocation framework and investment-grade balance sheet, will maximize shareholder value. First quarter organic growth, excluding the impact of Sprint cancellations and DISH terminations, was 3.1%, or $30 million, and included 0.3%, or $3 million decrease in other billings. First quarter organic growth increases to 3.3% if DISH revenues are excluded from prior year site rental billings.
Adjusted EBITDA and AFFO in the first quarter benefited from lower repair and maintenance costs, sustaining capital expenditures, and other non-labor costs. When excluding DISH revenues from prior year site rental billing, our full-year outlook includes 3.5% organic growth, excluding the impact of Sprint cancellations and DISH terminations, which we expect to mark the low point. At the midpoint of the range for full-year 2026, we expect site rental revenues of approximately $3.9 billion, adjusted EBITDA of approximately $2.7 billion and AFFO of approximately $1.9 billion. As a reminder, for the purposes of building our full-year 2026 outlook, we'll assume the sale of the small cell and fiber businesses closes on June 30th.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Full year 2026 outlook (all metrics) | FY2026 | reiterated / unchanged (unchanged) |
| Full year 2026 site rental revenues (midpoint) | FY2026 | approximately $3.9 billion (unchanged) |
| Full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA (midpoint) | FY2026 | approximately $2.7 billion (unchanged) |
| Full year 2026 AFFO (midpoint) | FY2026 | approximately $1.9 billion (unchanged) |
| Organic growth excluding Sprint and DISH (full year 2026) | FY2026 | 3.5% (low point) (unchanged) |
| AFFO for 12 months following close (midpoint) | post-close 12 months | $2.1 billion (unchanged range) (unchanged) |
| Discretionary CapEx (full year 2026) | FY2026 | $200M ($160M net of $40M prepaid rent) (unchanged) |
| Debt repayment / share repurchase from sale proceeds | post-close | ~$7B debt / ~$1B buyback (unchanged) |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Organic growth excluding Sprint and DISH | 3.1% (+$30 million) | Underlying carrier leasing activity, including a 0.3% ($3 million) decrease in other billings; 3.6% excluding the other-billings decrease. |
| DISH terminations impact on site rental revenues | -$49 million | Removal of DISH revenue following the January default and contract termination. |
| Non-cash straight-line revenues and amortization of prepaid rent | -$26 million | Decline in non-cash straight-line revenues and amortization of prepaid rent. |
| Sprint cancellations impact | -$5 million | Continuing Sprint cancellation headwind. |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiber/small cell sale | DOJ review cleared, handful of approvals remaining | almost all approvals received, separation largely complete, on track for first-half 2026 close | Nearing completion |
| DISH litigation and recovery | suit filed, seeking over $3.5 billion | suit amended to add breach-of-contract claim and a claim against EchoStar; resolution expected to take at least a year | Escalating |
| Operational efficiency and best-in-class transformation | ~20% workforce reduction announced | restructuring executed for $65 million run-rate savings; benchmarking against peers with 2026-2028 transformation goals | Executing |
| Land acquisition under towers | owns land under ~30% of towers | targeting 30%-40% ownership over the next several years to improve margin and control | Expanding |
| New growth avenues (edge compute, new tower builds, services) | exploring growth opportunities | signed an edge-compute partnership in trial phase, exploring selective new tower builds and expanded services, with growth second-half weighted | Emerging |
| Satellite competition | viewed as complementary | seen as de minimis and complementary, mainly for very rural use cases, not a near-term substitute for towers | Stable |