Crown Castle has reiterated its focus on simplifying its operations around its tower portfolio during the company’s first-quarter earnings.

The tower company also outlined its expectation that the planned sale of its fiber and small cell assets will complete in 2026.

Crown Castle agreed to sell its fiber and small cell assets for a combined $8.5 billion in March.

Zayo Group will buy the fiber assets, while EQT Active Core Infrastructure will buy its small cell assets.

The company noted in its first quarter earnings call that the combined sale will enable it to focus more on its tower business. Crown Castle, which owns and operates more than 40,000 telecom towers across the US, wants to sell the assets to expand its tower footprint.

“I think we can get the separation of our fiber and small cell businesses done effectively and it’s something that I’m focused on,” said Dan Schlanger, interim president and chief executive officer, Crown Castle. “I believe [it] will help us get that transaction done as efficiently as possible and as quickly as possible.

“I think we’re really well positioned going forward and excited that we have a story that is focused on the US tower market only because I think it’s a great market and it simplifies our story,” he added.

Schlanger also said that any further M&A deals are unlikely in the short term while the sales of the fiber and small cells businesses is being carried out.

Schlanger fielded questions during the earnings call, including one about the recently announced departure of former CEO Steven Moskowitz, but he didn’t elaborate further on Moskowitz’s exit.

Crown Castle terminated Moskowitz’s contract after less than 12 months at the helm in late March.

Moskowitz was appointed in April last year. He replaced former CEO Jay Brown, who announced his departure in December 2023. Brown had led the company since 2016.

For the first quarter of 2025, Crown Castle reported site rental revenues were down five percent. The company posted site rental revenues of $1.01bn for the quarter.

Crown Castle said it expects to generate around $4bn in site rental revenues for the full year 2025.

The company posted a net income loss of $464 million for the first quarter, compared to $311m for the first quarter 2024.

According to Crown Castle, this reflected the impact of an $830m loss associated with the agreement announced in March 2025 to sell Crown Castle’s fiber business.

The Adjusted EBITDA also dropped, down to $722m compared to $754m for the first quarter of last year.