AT&T on Sunday announced a deal with Crown Castle that will see the nationwide carrier lease the rights to 9,100 of its cell towers and sell another 600 towers. The carrier will receive a huge up-front cash payment of $4.85 billion and Crown Castle will have exclusive rights to operate each of the leased towers for the duration of the contract. AT&T will be able to sublease capacity on each of the towers in question for a minimum of 10 years, and its $1,900 per month per site rent cannot increase by more than 2% annually. The average lease term is 28 years according to AT&T, and Crown Castle will have the option to purchase the leased towers for $4.2 billion at the end of the lease. AT&T’s press release follows at the linked source below.